Kyuubi Blossom
by Element07
Summary: Sakura has become sealed after a failed mission and her life has changed drastically. Now with her ninja fox, she must find a whole new style of fighting, and together with her new partner, she must save the one she loves.
1. Prologue

**Summary****: During their mission at the bridge of Heaven and Earth, Sakura is struck by one of Naruto's demon chakra tails. The Kyuubi's chakra poisons her own and causes her incredible pain and the only way to save Sakura's life is to seal her. After she is sealed, Sakura must come up with a whole new jutsu style. During Sakura's struggle the threat of war is handing over Konoha's head and Sakura soon finds herself in the middle of it with her best friend, Naruto.**

Sakura watched sadly as Naruto slowly walked with his head hung low through the forest towards their home in Konoha. Their mission had been to meet with Sasori's spy on the bridge of Heaven and Earth, but the mission had turned into a rescue attempt when the spy turned out to be Kabuto, Orochimaru's right-hand man. Seeing Kabuto and Orochimaru had meant that their old teammate, Sasuke Uchiha had been close by. Sakura shuddered as she remembered the cold look her old crush had given her, and the way he had ruthlessly attacked both herself and Naruto, the ones who cared about him the most.

Overall the mission had been a failure, not only did they fail to learn anything, but they failed to bring Sasuke back to Konoha, again. Sakura glanced sideways at Naruto, who was still keeping his head low, and felt her heart sink even deeper. This mission had shown Naruto just how strong Sasuke was and that Naruto still had a long way to go.

No one said anything as they passed through the gates to Konoha. Captain Yamato looked at Naruto and cleared his throat quietly.

"We'll head straight to Lady Hokage's office to report on our mission," he said curtly.

"To report our failure," Naruto said bitterly. "We were too weak to do anything."

"Don't, Naruto," Sakura whispered. Naruto glanced at her and saw the tears in her eyes and didn't say anything.

Their newest member, Sai, raised his hand to get Yamato's attention. "If it is alright," he said formally. "I would like to head straight to Danzo to report and to ask to be released from ROOT."

"Are you sure that's what you want?" Sakura asked. "You don't have to give up your position in ROOT for us."

"It's not for you," Sai said bluntly. "I don't want to be part of ROOT anymore; I want to experience life instead of simply taking them away."

Sakura nodded and wished him luck while he disappeared in a puff of smoke. Yamato nodded and they all took off to Tsunade's office. The Fifth was sitting behind her desks going over past mission reports when they entered to report.

"Well," Tsunade said after looking over her team and noting every tear and cut on their bodies. "I'm guessing by your depressed expressions that the mission didn't go well."

"I'm afraid we failed my lady," Sakura said as she looked at the floor. "The spy turned out to be Kabuto and we ended up fighting both him and Orochimaru himself. We survived against Orochimaru because," Sakura trailed off and glanced anxiously at Naruto.

"I used the Kyuubi's chakra and lost control," Naruto said bitterly. He started to dig his nails into his palms and gritted his teeth.

"And saved our lives," Sakura put in.

Naruto turned on Sakura. "I almost killed you!" he shouted. "And even though I didn't, you're still hurt! I know your arm is still causing you pain!" he cried when she opened her mouth to deny her injury.

Tsunade looked at Sakura and raised an eyebrow. Sakura turned her green eyes to Tsunade and silently pleaded with them for her mentor to leave her questions until they were alone.

Sakura silently observed Naruto while Yamato gave the rest of their report. Naruto was still shaking and his eyes were quickly switching from blue to red slits. _I hate this_, she thought sadly. _Now he'll be tearing himself up and there won't be anything I can do to help._

By the time Yamato had finished with their report Sakura's arm was starting to hurt again. She had kept the pain at bay so far, but her chakra was almost out and the pain was returning.

"Well this is unfortunate," Tsunade mumbled. Looking up she added, "I want you and Naruto to go to the hospital to get checked out, Yamato. Sakura, you stay here so we can talk."

Naruto caught Sakura's eye again and gazed there for a moment before he turned and followed Yamato out the window. Sakura looked after them before she turned to face her mentor.

"I can sense it," Tsunade said while she looked sternly at her young apprentice. "The demon fox's chakra is mixing in with yours. If we don't stop it now, it'll kill you."

"I can feel it," Sakura whispered. "I managed to stop it for the majority of our mission, but with my chakra so low, the pain is returning."

Tsunade stood up and walked over to Sakura and took the injured arm into her gentle hands. Tsunade focused her chakra into her hands and gently placed it on the wound. Using her chakra as a guide, Tsunade examined the wound to see the extent of the damage.

"Your chakra in your arm is almost completely mixed with the Kyuubi's," she said with concern. "If we let this go on, the Kyuubi chakra will make its way to your heart and then it will kill you."

"So how do we stop it from spreading?"

Tsunade removed her hand and went over to a shelf filled with scrolls and started looking through them. "You did a good job keeping it at bay, but you won't be able to stop this by sheer force of will, either the Kyuubi's chakra will slip past and kill you or you will use up all your chakra and effectively kill yourself."

Sakura walked over to the wall and sat down in one of the chairs with her hand gently holding onto her injury. "So what are our options?"

"I'm afraid we only have one," Tsunade said as she pulled out a dusty looking scroll and opened it up in the middle of the floor.

There was a thick layer of dust on the scroll, but it didn't cover the symbols that were cracked with age. Sakura looked at them with dread and then looked up to see her own frightened gaze reflected on her mentor's face.

"I have to be sealed?"

"I'm afraid it's the only way," Tsunade said. "I'll seal this room so no one can enter and no one can hear what happens. I need you to sit on the scroll and tear off the sleeve."

Sakura knelt in the center of the scroll and cut off her left sleeve while Tsunade locked the doors and windows and sealed them shut. Once Tsunade was satisfied that no one no sound could enter or leave, she stood behind her student.

"Are you ready for this? You don't want something to bite down on?"

"You sealed the room, and you and I both know that I would just end up biting anything you give me in half."

Tsunade chuckled and pulled out a kunai from Sakura's pouch. "Brace yourself," she warned her.

If the seals hadn't been in place, everyone in Konoha would've heard Sakura's piercing scream that cut through the Fifth Hokage's gut sharper than any blade.

**A/N- I hope you all liked it. The more reviews I get, the faster I'll update.**


	2. Searching

"What do you mean Sakura left on a mission?" Naruto demanded when he stood in front of Tsunade the day after their return to the village. "She was as exhausted as the rest of us, plus she was injured!"

"Naruto, calm down," Tsunade said while she rubbed the sides of her head. "Sakura had to do this mission, that's all that I'm going to tell you."

Naruto stomped up to Tsunade's desk and slammed his fists down, knocking over a pile of paperwork. "Can you at least tell me how dangerous this mission is and how long it should take?" he begged.

"I know you're worried about her," Tsunade said gently. "Your feelings for her are strong and you want to protect her. Yamato told me what happened to Sakura's arm and how much it weakened her. You feel like you've failed at your duty to protect the woman you love."

Tears started to form in the corner of Naruto's eyes. "When she fell from the top of the trees because of the pain in her arm, I felt like someone had stabbed me. Yamato had to catch her because I was too weak and I couldn't reach her. I can't remember ever feeling that horrible, that helpless."

Tsunade sighed and looked Naruto in the eye. "The mission is only dangerous if Sakura fails, and with any luck she'll be back within a week. I can't guarantee this however." Tsunade stood up and picked up the papers that Naruto knocked over. "She's stronger than you give her credit for, Naruto. Once when we were training she had a broken arm and a couple broken ribs, but she wouldn't stop until she perfected what I was teaching her."

Someone knocked on the door before Naruto could demand any more answers. Naruto gave Tsunade one last desperate look before he jumped out of the window and ran home.

"Enter!" Tsunade called while she reorganized the papers back on her desk. Shizune opened the door and walked in.

"I have Sakura's latest chakra tests," Shizune said while she handed Tsunade a folder.

Tsunade looked at the test results thoroughly before leaning back in her chair with a heavy sigh. "It looks like I sealed her just in time; I don't think she would've made it if we waited even another hour."

"How did the sealing go?"

"It was painful for her," Tsunade said with her face in her hands. "But, luckily I only sealed the chakra in one arm. With time her own chakra will begin to flow through her arm, the sealed chakra shouldn't interfere with it."

Shizune took back the test results and looked at them herself. "So did you hide her so she could recover? If Naruto learns that you had to seal his closest friend because of him he'll be devastated."

"No, she's not resting," Shizune said to Shizune's surprise.

"But she just had a sealing jutsu placed on her! She should be in the hospital where we can take care of her!"

Tsunade reached in one of her drawers and pulled out a scroll. The scroll was torn and discolored from years of use. Without a second thought, Tsunade threw all of the papers on her desk on the floor to make room for the scroll. She placed the scroll on the clean desk and formed a hand sign which made the sealed scroll unroll on the desk.

"This is the scroll used for creating ninja animals," Tsunade explained. "After I sealed the Kyuubi chakra in Sakura's arm it became apparent that the sealed chakra was going to be too much for Sakura's body to handle. Sakura's mission right now is to find an animal to connect with so that she can transfer some of the mixed chakra in its body."

Shizune looked at the scroll and drummed her fingers on the desk in wonderment. "Is this the same scroll that the Inuzuka clan used to create their ninja dogs?"

"Yes," answered Tsunade. "This is the scroll that the Inuzuka clan used to create their first generation of ninja dogs, now they breed them."

"So if Sakura finds this animal, you're going to seal the Kyuubi chakra in it," Shizune ventured.

"Not just the Kyuubi's," Tsunade sighed. "Because the Kyuubi chakra mixed in with Sakura's I had to seal some of her own chakra. So the animal she chooses to transfer some of the sealed chakra into will have both hers and the Kyuubi's chakra."

Shizune traced the seal pattern on the scroll with a delicate finger. "This is going to be a very difficult seal to perform with the demon fox's chakra. I worry about how damaging it will be on Sakura."

Tsunade formed another hand sign, causing the scroll to roll up and seal, before placing it back in her desk. "Sakura is tough," she said, trying to convince both Shizune and herself. "She managed to handle the first sealing and I'm sure that she'll be able to handle the second."

"I hope you're right Lady Tsunade," Shizune whispered.

"I'm always right," Tsunade scoffed. "Now clean up this mess on the floor."

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Sakura leaned against a tree, panting, as she tried to regain a sense of where she was. She had left the village two days ago and was nowhere closer to finding what Tsunade called "her destined partner". _She told me I should just know_, Sakura thought tiredly. _But I can't connect with any of the animals that I've seen so far._

The sun had started to set a few minutes ago and it was now at the point when it hit the Konoha monument, making it stand out. Sakura hadn't wanted to travel too far, out of fear that if she collapsed she wouldn't be found. Instead of traveling too far, Sakura had decided to search a few miles just outside the training grounds. There were many species of animals in this area and it seemed like the most logical choice to search.

After taking shelter in a hollowed out tree, Sakura ran her fingers down her bandaged arm where her mentor had had to draw out a seal with a kunai that ran down to her elbow before sealing it with an extremely painful amount of chakra. Sleep overcame Sakura while she absentmindedly rubbed her still tender arm.

In the middle of the night a loud, pain filled bark sounded close to where Sakura was camping. Sakura was out of the tree with kunai in hand in seconds while she scanned the forest for any potential threats. As quickly as it had come, the barking stopped and Sakura could hear small whimpering close by. _Whatever it is,_ she thought. _It's hurt._

Sakura slowly made her way through the bushed and stepped in a small pool of blood. Dropping to her knees, Sakura found the source of the blood hiding underneath the branches of a small bush.

"Hello there," she said softly. "What happened to you?"

The creature was shaking, but still managed to bare its fangs at the potential threat. Sakura pulled out her gloves and put them on before reaching in to carefully pull out the injured animal.

Whatever it was put up a fight. It tried to bite off Sakura's fingers, but the tough gloves, designed to protect the owner's hands, wouldn't break under its hard bite. It continued to thrash and bark weakly while Sakura wrapped it in the jacket she was wearing and took it back to the tree where Sakura was spending the night.

Using what little medical supplies she had, Sakura cleaned up the scratches and bite marks on her new friend's body. After the wounds were clean, Sakura carefully bandaged the small body. Whatever she was holding was so small that she could fit it in her two hands.

"You poor thing," she murmured. "You look like you're barely old enough to leave your mother's side."

In response to Sakura's treatment and warmth, the baby creature snuggled up against Sakura's stomach and soon fell asleep. The rest of the night flew quickly while Sakura gently rubbed her friend's back to make sure that it was warm enough. When the sun began to rise Sakura got out of the tree and got a good look at her companion for the first time.

Sakura's eyes widened when she realized that the little creature she had been caring for all night was a female red fox kit. But this kit didn't look like any other fox that Sakura had ever seen. The kit had little stumps coming out of her back, and upon closer inspection, Sakura realized that they were underdeveloped wings.

_I've never seen a winged fox before_, Sakura mused while she gently inspected the kit's wings.

Somewhere between Sakura inspecting her wings and checking her pelt for any more cuts, the kit woke up and began barking in protest.

"Now you stop that," Sakura said gently while she moved on to check the kit's ears.

Once Sakura was happy that there wasn't anything else wrong with the kit, she gently placed it on the ground and stood up to stretch. The kit whined at being put down and started pawing at Sakura's boot, demanding to be picked up.

"Well aren't we pushy," Sakura laughed while she stiffly bent down to pick up the kit. Sakura still felt weak and hurt after being sealed, but this little kit helped Sakura feel more energized.

Sakura held the kit up at eye level and noticed that the kit had green eyes similar to hers. The kit leaned forward and gave Sakura a quick lick on the nose before she started chewing on her gloves again.

"Well, it looks like my mission was a success," Sakura laughed while the kit started barking, as if in agreement. Sakura cradled the kit in her arms and started the trek back to Konoha.

**A/N- Thanks for the reviews, but I hope to get even more! Remember: reviews=updates! **


	3. Lily

Sakura stood in front of Tsunade with the fox kit in her arms. Having Tsunade's hard stare on her made the kit bury her face in Sakura's arms, desperate to hide.

"So how did you find her?" Tsunade asked.

"I heard her bark in pain after she was attacked," Sakura explained while she and the kit started playing tug of war with her gloves.

"And you treated her and became best friends?" Tsunade asked. "Foxes normally aren't so trusting like this, but she seems to have taken a liking to you."

"Ironic isn't it?" Sakura chuckled. "I've got fox chakra sealed in me, and my partner is a fox."

Tsunade sealed the room with the same seals used during their last meeting and then pulled the Inuzuka scroll out of her desk again and unsealed it. "The sooner we do this the better," she explained.

Sakura hesitated and looked down at the kit. "Will this hurt her? She's so young," Sakura started.

"I don't know if it will hurt her, but we need to do this now before the sealed chakra overrides your system. Now put the kit on the scroll," Tsunade ordered.

The kit objected to being put on the scroll in front of Tsunade who was towering over her. Tsunade pulled out a kunai and the kit tried to run, but Sakura held it in place and rubbed her hands behind the kit's ears in an attempt to calm it down.

"Shh, it's okay," Sakura soothed it.

Tsunade took the kit's right paw and drew a seal as lightly as she could with the kunai. The kit kept trying to run away, but Sakura wouldn't let her go. Once the seal was drawn, Tsunade handed the bloody kunai to Sakura and switched places with her so that Tsunade was the one who was holding the kit in place.

"What do I do now Lady?" Sakura asked while looking uneasily at the kunai.

"Take off your bandages and draw blood from the seal mark on your arm," Tsunade explained.

Sakura did as she was told and traced the kunai over the still red seal mark on her arm. The pain was intense, but somehow she managed to hold the kunai steady until she finished retracing the seal mark. Once she was done, she handed the kunai back to Tsunade.

"Now hold onto the kit's paw," Tsunade instructed.

Once Sakura took the kit's paw in her hand, Tsunade waited until their blood started to trail down till it mixed. Sakura felt a strong pulse of power when their blood started mixing. Tsunade formed a hand sign before placing one hand on both seal marks.

"Don't break the kit's paw with your strength," Tsunade warned Sakura. "This will hurt you more than it will hurt the kit."

Sakura nodded gravely and gripped the desk with her other hand and held the kit's paw as lightly as she could. Tsunade channeled the chakra from Sakura's seal into the new seal into the kit. Sakura cried out in pain and clutched the desk until it started to crack. The kit started barking and tried to pull her paw away, but Sakura held it firmly.

The seal on Sakura's arm and the kit's leg started to turn blood red and Sakura felt like her arm was on fire. Sakura had to close her eyes when the seal started getting brighter and made her eyes sting. Tsunade looked from Sakura to the kit and gave one last giant push of chakra into the two seals. Sakura screamed in pain and then everything went black.

The first thing that Sakura was aware of was the painful throbbing in her left arm. Sakura opened her eyes and noticed that she was in a hospital bed instead of Lady Tsunade's office. The walls were painfully white and the sheets on the bed were stiff.

Letting out a hiss of pain, Sakura pushed herself into a sitting position and observed that her arm was bandaged thoroughly. Her arm was the only part of her bandaged, but everything hurt.

Sakura started using her own chakra to inspect the sealing when the door opened and a small ball of red leaped onto her lap, causing Sakura to gasp in surprise.

"Sake! You're awake!" the little red ball exclaimed happily.

"Um," Sakura said stunned. Sakura noticed the familiar green eyes and the small folded wings on the back of the little red ball. "You're the fox kit I found!" Sakura gasped. "But you're so much bigger than you were when I first saw you."

The kit licked her bandaged right leg before standing up on her hind legs. "The scary lady said that whatever she did made me bigger. How are you feeling Sake?"

"Why do you keep calling me Sake?" Sakura asked the young fox.

The kit tilted her head to the side in confusion. "After they took you away, the old lady said that she was going to go find sake. Aren't you sake?"

Sakura laughed and picked up the kit and noted all the differences in the kit since she last saw her. "No, my name is Sakura. Sake is a drink that Lady Tsunade enjoys a little too much."

"Lady Tsunade is the scary lady?" the kit asked.

"Stop calling me scary lady!" a voice boomed from the doorway, causing the kit to seek refuge underneath the sheets.

"Lady Tsunade, Shizune!" Sakura greeted happily.

Tsunade and Shizune stepped into the room and closed the door behind them. Tsunade glared at the shaking mound underneath the sheets before she picked up Sakura's arm and examined the seal with her chakra. "How are you feeling?" she asked roughly.

"I feel drained," Sakura admitted. "How long have I been asleep?"

"A couple days," Tsunade answered when she finished her exam. "Now that you're awake you can watch this annoying kit. She's been running around my office ever since we sealed her and she's driving me crazy."

Sakura laughed and dragged the kit out of the sheets. "So how can you talk now? Also you're bigger than I remember."

The kit jumped onto Sakura's lap and flexed her wings, which had also grown in size. "The scary lady says that my wings are big enough now to allow me to fly. I don't know why I can talk, neither does the scary lady."

Tsunade clenched her teeth every time the kit called her "scary". "I don't know why she can talk, I wish she couldn't. All that matters now is that you two learn how to use your seals."

"Use our seals?" Sakura repeated. "I thought the whole point of these seals was to seal off the Kyuubi's chakra."

Tsunade started to remove the bandages on Sakura's arm and pointed out the seal. The seal wound all over Sakura's arm like a vine, but on the side of her arm were four lines that weren't connected to the vine. "Each one of these four lines represents a different type of chakra and the vine represents the Kyuubi's chakra. These lines are mostly your chakra, with a little bit of Kyuubi chakra mixed in with it. The Kyuubi chakra within these four lines is small enough that it won't damage your body too much." Tsunade pointed at the top line that was closest to Sakura's shoulder. "This line has the least amount of demon chakra in it, all the lines below it have more demon chakra in them than the one above."

Sakura traced the vine on her arm while she looked at the four lines. "So, simply put, these are four different seals?"

"Yes," Tsunade said, pleased that her apprentice had picked up on that. "You can generate these four seals into any type of chakra enhancement you want, like speed or strength. But, you need to choose wisely, because once you use that enhancement you can't change it again. Oh and another thing," she said as she picked up a protesting fox kit. "This annoying fur-ball has the same seal that you do, but you need to come up her chakra enhancements, she won't have the same as yours unless that's what you want. You can also combine your seals in a way to give more power to the other and other possibilities. I'm not entirely sure about the extent of this seal's potential, but that's for you to figure out."

The kit jumped out of Tsunade's arms and curled up in Sakura's lap. "When will my leg stop hurting?" she asked.

"It'll stop hurting in time," Sakura promised her. "By the way, I don't know your name."

"I don't think I have one," the kit admitted. "Will you pick one for me?"

Sakura thought about it for a minute before she picked the kit up to look her in the eye. "How about Lily?"

The kit thought about it before she broke out into a big fox grin. "I like it! From now on, I'm Lily!" Lily jumped up and down and ran up to Shizune, who had been nice to her while Tsunade had been short tempered. "Am I a ninja now, Shizune?"

Shizune laughed and stroked Lily's head. "You'll have to do a lot of training with Sakura before Lady Tsunade will pronounce you a ninja fox. But, if you work hard I'm sure it won't take too long."

Lily stood on her hind legs and beat her wings weakly. "I need to learn how to fly too," she said. Turning to Sakura she added, "When can we go training? I want to be a ninja fox."

Tsunade glared at Shizune reproachfully. "Way to go; now she won't stop bugging me till I give her a headband."

Shizune chuckled nervously before she turned back to Sakura. "You should rest here for another couple days. Training right away would be a bad idea."

"I'll take it easy for a while," Sakura promised. "Maybe I'll stop by Kiba's house and ask for some advice about ninja animals."

"That's a good idea," Tsunade said. "But, don't tell anyone that either of you have the Kyuubi's chakra in you, or that it's also in an actual fox."

"I'm a winged fox," Lily objected. "Sakura will you help me learn how to fly?"

"Of course I will," Sakura promised. "Lady Tsunade, what should I tell my team? They have a right to know."

Tsunade leaned against the wall and crossed her arms. "Feel free to tell them, but you're not going to be on the active roster for a while. You won't even be on the hospital schedule."

"But Lady Tsunade!" Sakura objected. "I can train in-between missions and my hospital shifts, I don't need to be taken off the roster."

"You will be training every day," Tsunade snapped. "Your seal is different from Naruto's or even Sasuke's. With proper training your sealed chakra won't spin out of control and hurt everyone around you."

Sakura looked at the seal on her arm for a long moment before looking Lily in the eye. "We have a lot of work to do."

**A/N- Thanks for all of the reviews! Review more and I write more!**


	4. Training

"Let's try again Lily!" Sakura called from the bottom of a thirty foot tree.

Lily was still holding onto the tree with her claws and her red fur was fluffed out, making her look bigger. "I'll never be able to do it!" she cried. "I can't fly!"

Sakura stood back and smiled supportively. "We've been working on strengthening your wings for over a week and now I'm sure that they're strong enough to support your weight in flight. You're just afraid that you'll fall."

"I don't want to get hurt," Lily said pitifully.

"I know," Sakura said sympathetically. "You're still really young and everything is happening to you so fast, but if you want to be a ninja fox you'll have to accept the fact that you have to do things that will hurt you. The harder we train together, hopefully the less often you'll get hurt."

Lily shifted uneasily, but loosened her death grip on the tree. With a deep breath, she opened her wings which were about two feet in length when unfolded and resembled bats wings. Shakily, Lily leaned back on her hind legs, using her wings and tail for balance.

"You can do it Lily!" Sakura yelled.

Taking strength from Sakura, Lily gathered strength in her hind legs and jumped out of the tree. Lily's heart started racing when she started to drop, but she kept flapping her wings and found that all of those strength exercises she had been doing to strengthen her wings had paid off.

"I'm flying!" she exclaimed. Carefully, she experimented with changing direction in the air, climbing, twisting and finally landing. Once she was safely on the ground she ran up to Sakura and started jumping up and down in front of her. "That was so much fun! I wish you could fly with me."

Sakura giggled and pulled out a couple of kunai and shuriken. "I'm not too crazy about heights," she admitted. "Now, we'll work on your evasive skills in the air. Can you take off without me putting you in a tree?

Lily scoffed indignantly and took off the ground with ease. "I like flying now, I don't need a tree."

"You gained a lot of confidence awfully quickly," Sakura observed. "I'll throw these gently at first, and we'll work our way from there, alright?"

"Okay!"

Lily dodged the first round easily and Sakura was soon throwing more and more shuriken and kunai with greater speed. By the time Sakura decided to call it a night, both Lily and Sakura were drenched in sweat and Lily only had a few scratches where she failed to dodge in time.

Sakura sat down on the ground and motioned for Lily to come to her. Lily landed roughly and trotted over to her. Sakura picked Lily up and placed her in her lap while she healed the minor wounds.

"You improve very quickly," Sakura commented. "Your first flying lesson and you ended up avoiding almost every single weapon I threw at you. And you didn't let these wounds slow you down."

"I want to be a ninja fox," Lily said with a yawn. "You told me the harder I work, the more injuries I'll avoid. So I figured that even if I had a couple small wounds if I kept going I'd improve more."

"You're rather stubborn, I'm not sure if that's good or bad," Sakura teased while she finished with the last scratch.

Once she was done, Lily leapt out of Sakura's lap and gave herself a good shake. "Are we going to train some more?"

Sakura stood up with a grunt and started picking up the scattered shuriken and kunai. "I'm still recovering from the sealing," she explained. "We'll stop for today, tomorrow I want to try the first seal on both of us, and we'll both need to be rested."

Lily's ears perked at the mention of their first seal. "Will the scary lady and Shizune be there?"

"No, we're going to do this away from the village as a precaution, plus the fewer people there, the better."

They started walking back to the village. Because they were still training in secret, they trained miles outside of the village and far away from the training grounds. Sakura was still reluctant to tell her team about her new partner, solely based on the fact she didn't want Naruto to feel guilty.

Lily jumped up and took her normal spot on Sakura's shoulder. "Are we going to stop by Kiba's again?" she asked. "I like playing with Akamaru."

Even though Kiba didn't know about the Kyuubi seal on both Sakura and Lily, he was still very helpful when Sakura asked him for advice on how to get in perfect sync with Lily. Kiba had asked a few questions about how Sakura came across a winged fox that had a strong supply of chakra, but he didn't press on even with the vague answers he was given.

"I don't think we'll go today," Sakura replied. "I want a chance to plan what we're going to do for the first seal, and I need to speak with Lady Tsunade about the best course of action to take."

Lily grumbled something about not wanting to see the Fifth, but Sakura didn't pay any attention to it. Tsunade would only offer a few words of advice when it came to Sakura's training with the seal, but Sakura was positive that Tsunade would be able to explain the process of activating the first seal.

Tsunade was alone in her office when Sakura knocked on the window. Sakura had taken great care to make sure that nobody knew about Lily until it was necessary, and that meant that Sakura was starting to develop the habit of never using doors.

"Good afternoon Lady Tsunade," Sakura greeted while she climbed through the window. Lily murmured what sounded like a greeting, but Sakura didn't listen.

"How was training today?" Tsunade asked while she signed some reports.

Sakura pulled Lily off her shoulder and placed her on Tsunade's desk. Tsunade eyed the little fox sternly, but didn't snap at her like she usually did.

"I want to try the first seal tomorrow," Sakura explained. "But, I don't really know where to begin. I've never dealt with a seal so complex, and I was hoping you could give me some advice on where to start."

Tsunade pushed some papers aside and pulled Lily closer to her. "You will need to be well rested for this, Sakura, but I can do the first seal for Lily because her chakra control isn't that good yet," she offered while she took the bandages off of Lily's leg.

Once the bandages were off Lily shook her leg and stretched it. The fur from her shoulder to her paw was a lighter shade of red than the rest of her body, making the black seal stand out. Tsunade ran her finger along the first seal making Lily flinch.

"The seal I put on the two of you was made of blood," she began. "So the seal can only be opened by your blood. I'm not sure about this, but the best guess I can give you is that you cut open the seal to release the stored chakra, then you channel that chakra in the way that you want it."

Tsunade drew a kunai and looked at Sakura. "Have you thought about what you would like enhanced from the first seal on Lily?"

"I was thinking a speed enhancement," Sakura explained. "She is fast, but not fast enough yet."

"Speed sounds good," Tsunade agreed. Meeting Lily's gaze with her own she asked, "Are you ready?"

"I guess I have to be," Lily whimpered.

Tsunade sliced the first seal right in the middle and set off to work on the first seal, with Sakura watching carefully because she wouldn't be able to rely on her mentor to handle the rest of them.

**A/N- I know that I don't really write the sealing scenes, but they're too complicated for me to put down on paper :-D REVIEWS=UPDATES!**


	5. Speed

Naruto sighed while he waited for Sakura to show up for training. Their failed mission was almost a month ago, and since then Sakura had been sent on another mission. After he heard that Sakura was back, Naruto tried to meet her at her apartment, but she would barely even open the door.

_She must hate me,_ Naruto thought sadly. _I knew that she would feel angry with me after I hurt her._

"Good morning Naruto."

Naruto turned his head to see Kakashi heading towards him. So far they were the only two on the training grounds.

"Morning Kakashi," Naruto mumbled. "Have you seen Sakura? Granny Tsunade told me that she would be joining us today."

Kakashi shrugged and pulled out his latest book. "She is rather late," he commented.

_No shit_, Naruto thought. _Even you beat her here._

"Tsunade told me that Sakura has been training hard lately," Kakashi explained. "Today I wanted to see the results of that training, you're here because I figured that you would give the Fifth an earful if you weren't invited."

Naruto opened his mouth to yell at Kakashi when suddenly something knocked him off his feet. "What the hell was that!" he demanded. When he jumped back on his feet he saw a red blur running all over the training field.

"It seems to be a speed jutsu," Kakashi noted without looking up from his book.

"Well, I'll stop it," Naruto yelled while he formed a hand sign. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto created three shadow clones and started running after the red blur. He chased after it for twenty minutes before he collapsed on the ground and the shadow clones disappeared. "What the hell is that thing?" he demanded.

The red blur stopped running and stood right in front of Naruto. It was a large red fox with piercing green eyes with a weird mark on its right leg. The fox was as high as Naruto's chest and it had strong legs and a lean body built for speed.

"You're slow," the fox commented.

Naruto jumped to his feet and pulled out a kunai. "How can you talk?" he demanded. "And why did you attack me?"

The fox sat down and started scratching her ears. "She wanted to play with you," the fox explained.

"Who?" Naruto asked.

"Me!"

The fox's ears perked up and she jumped back on her feet. "Did you see how fast I was going Sakura?"

"You were great Lily," Sakura commented while she ran into the training area.

Lily beamed with pride and trotted up to Sakura. "Do I have to reseal my speed seal?" she asked. "I love being able to run so fast."

Sakura knelt down and inspected Lily's right leg. "Your speed seal is starting to fade. Do you remember what Lady Tsunade explained to you?"

"She said that the darker the seal, the more chakra there is." Lily recited. Sighing, Lily lifted her left paw and ran a claw right along the top line. "Speed seal, close," she said grumpily and was surrounded in a puff of smoke.

Naruto gaped when he saw a little fox kit sitting where a huge fox had been sitting just seconds ago. "What was that Sakura?" he asked when the kit stretched its wings and flew onto Sakura's shoulder.

"This is Lily," she explained while she scratched Lily's chest. "She's training to be my ninja fox."

Naruto stared at Sakura and noticed that she looked different than he remembered. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she had a stronger build. But, the one thing that Naruto noticed before anything else were the bandages on her left arm.

"Is your arm still injured, Sakura?" Naruto asked with his head hung low.

Sakura looked at her arm and gave Naruto a smile. "My arm is much better, Naruto. But, the reason I wanted to talk to you and Kakashi was because of Lily here."

"Why don't we talk about this sitting down," Kakashi suggested.

Sakura walked over to the trees and leaned against it with a sigh of content while Lily jumped off her shoulder and curled up next to her. Naruto kept his distance, but kept his guilty blue gaze on Sakura's bandaged arm.

"When I was struck by the Kyuubi's chakra," Sakura began with a sad look at Naruto. "The demon chakra was mixing with mine, and Tsunade told me that I had to have my arm sealed off."

"You were sealed?" Naruto gasped. Before Sakura could assure him that she was fine he was kneeling in front of her, with tears running down his face. "I'm so sorry Sakura," he cried. "I won't ever use the Kyuubi's chakra again, I wanted to bring Sasuke back, but I hurt you in the process."

Sakura reached her hand out and cupped Naruto's cheek. "It's okay Naruto," she assured him. "I'm fine now, and Lily and I are working on using our seals to our advantage."

"What does the fox have to do with it?" Kakashi asked from behind his book.

"My name is Lily!" Lily cried indignantly.

Sakura put her hand on Lily's head to calm her. "Lady Tsunade sealed the Kyuubi's chakra in my arm after we gave her our mission report about Orochimaru's hideout. But, the mixed chakra in my arm was still too much for my body to handle so Lady Tsunade sent me on a mission to find a vessel to transfer some of the chakra into it."

Kakashi looked at Lily with interest. "So Lady Fifth transferred some of your sealed chakra into Lily here, but what is the "speed seal"?"

Lily sat up and let Sakura hold up her right leg. "These four lines," Sakura said while she pointed each of them out. "Are like branch seals off of the main seal," Sakura gestured to the vine. "Lily and I can break these branch seals and use the stored chakra, which has a little bit of the Kyuubi chakra in them. The first time we broke Lily's first seal, Lady Tsunade channeled the chakra into increasing Lily's speed. So now every time that Lily breaks this seal, she'll transform into her speed form and when she closes it the seal starts to regenerate more mixed chakra."

"That's quite the impressive seal," Kakashi commented. "But what about the other three and what do your seals do, Sakura?"

"Lily only has the speed seal right now, and I used my first two seals for complicated medical jutsus," Sakura explained.

Kakashi leaned forward and stared at Lily closely. "You are a curious specimen."

Lily growled and took a swipe at Kakashi's face. "Sakura told me that when I master my speed form she would help me with my second seal. I want to be a ninja!"

"If you train hard with Sakura I'm sure you will succeed," Kakashi chuckled.

"Hell yeah!" Lily yelled.

Sakura answered more of Kakashi's questions for a little bit before she sighed. "I've got to go," she said. "We stopped by to explain what happened and why I have been distant lately," Sakura yawned while she stood up and stretched. "I have a lesson with Lady Tsunade soon, so I need to get going."

Naruto stood up with Sakura and pulled her in a hug causing Sakura to blush. "I promise to never hurt you again," he whispered in her ear. They stayed like that for a moment before he would release her.

"I'll come find you later," Sakura promised while she picked up Lily. "Please don't feel guilty Naruto," she begged. "If I hadn't been injured, I never would've met Lily."

"I'll try," Naruto mumbled.

Sakura gave Naruto a genuine smile and took off. Within minutes Sakura and Lily were standing in front of Tsunade's desk.

"So how did it go?" Tsunade asked gruffly while she worked on paperwork.

"Naruto feels terrible," Sakura sighed. "This seal is challenging, but it doesn't hurt nearly as much as it did before. I'm hoping that Naruto will forgive himself in time."

"In time I'm sure he will," Tsunade agreed. "Now, you're here so we can work on your third seal, correct?"

"Yes Lady Tsunade," Sakura said while she bowed her head.

Tsunade dug through her desk and pulled out a scroll. "This jutsu is incredibly difficult, but I think it would be perfect for your third seal," Tsunade said while she handed Sakura the scroll.

Sakura opened it and read it quickly. Lily leaned forward and looked at the scroll with her. "What does this scroll say Sakura?" she asked.

Sakura lowered the scroll and looked at her mentor with her eyes wide. "This scroll explains how to use Creation Rebirth."

"Correct," Tsunade said while she rested her elbows on her desk. "But the difference between my Creation Rebirth and your Creation Rebirth is it won't shorten your lifespan, but your Creation Rebirth will take more and more out of you every time that you use it. If you learn to rely on it, it will kill you just not in the same way that mine kills me."

Sakura gaped at Tsunade for a few moments before she spoke again. "I don't understand," she admitted. "Why will my Creation Rebirth fail to harm me? Shizune explained to me what happens when you use Creation Rebirth."

Tsunade stood up and stretched. "I've done some research with the Kyuubi chakra," she began. "And true, it hurts the body, but it doesn't kill cells. When I use Creation Rebirth, all that excess chakra flooding my system at once damages my cells. But, for some reason, when the Kyuubi chakra is introduced into your system it doesn't destroy your body."

"But I still can't use it continuously," Sakura put in. "Because using that much chakra will do me harm, just not as much harm as it would if it was just my chakra."

"Exactly," Tsunade said with approval. "Creation Rebirth is very complicated, I want you to read the scroll over very carefully before you break the third seal."

"Why does she need to study so much scary lady?" Lily asked.

Tsunade glared at Lily. "Because she'll only have one shot to get it right," she snapped. "In order to create the third seal, Sakura needs to channel all of that chakra into a deadly wound. The only way to create the third seal is to stab Sakura in a place that can't normally be healed."

Lily's fur began to bristle. "So in order to do this…Sakura needs to be on the brink of death?"

"Exactly," Tsunade said with no emotion in her voice.

A/N- REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW!


	6. The Third Seal

"I don't want Sakura to die!" Lily wailed on Tsunade's desk. The very idea of losing Sakura made Lily's heart skip a beat.

Tsunade glared at Lily. "She won't die," she snapped. "She's the third best medic-nin in this village, and I'll be overseeing the entire process. If you can't get over your fear of pain and loss you'll never be a ninja."

Lily met Tsunade's glare before turning to face Sakura. "I don't want you to get hurt," she whimpered.

Sakura's heart melted at Lily's sincerity. "A ninja's life is dangerous," she began carefully. "Sometimes the only way to get stronger is to put your life on the line."

"There must be another way!" Lily protested.

"There isn't," Tsunade growled.

Lily looked back and forth from Sakura to Tsunade anxiously. After a few moments, she hung her head low in defeat and jumped off the desk.

Sakura looked at Lily sadly before she started questioning the Fifth about the Creation Rebirth. She discussed the complex jutsu with Tsunade for an hour before she stretched and let out a long sigh. "Would now be a good time to do this Lady Tsunade?" she asked.

Tsunade's eyes widened in surprise. "You want to try it now? Wouldn't you rather study the scroll more?"

"I think it would be best if I did it now," Sakura said firmly. "If I go home to read about it some more, I'll end up overanalyzing it. I would feel more confident doing this now while the knowledge is fresh in my head."

"Very well," Tsunade said.

Lily ran out from behind Tsunade's desk and scratched at Sakura's leg. "This is stupid!" she declared. "You're already an amazing medical ninja so there's no reason for you to hurt yourself like this for a fancy jutsu!"

"That's enough Lily!" Sakura snapped, making Lily flinch at the harsh tone that had never been used on her. "I will do this because I am a ninja," Sakura continued to snap at Lily. "It doesn't matter what you feel about this, because you're too weak to stop me!"

Lily jumped away from Sakura and flew towards the open window. "I may not be strong enough," she cried at Sakura. "But I'm sure that Naruto will stop this!"

"Then go find him! But you won't be back in time!"

Lily pulled her teeth back in a snarl and drew her claw down the first seal. "Speed Seal, Release!" she cried.

In the blink of an eye, Lily was gone and a puff of smoke was left in her wake. Sakura sighed and turned to Tsunade. "I hated that," she admitted. "But this way she'll be out of our hair."

"She'll be back with Naruto within a couple of minutes," Tsunade pointed out.

Sakura rolled up the scroll and held it under her arm. "Would the forbidden jutsu rooms be a better location for this?"

Tsunade's mouth twitched in a small smile at her apprentice's deviousness.

"Naruto!" Lily called while she sped to the special training grounds as fast as her legs would carry her. "Naruto!"

Naruto was training with Kakashi and Yamato at a waterfall far outside of Konoha, Sakura had told her the day before. If Lily had known where these training grounds were, Lily would've been back with Naruto within two minutes. Lily searched miles outside of Konoha for over five minutes when she heard some shouting. Using an extra push of chakra in her legs, Lily broke through the trees and gasped at the sight.

There were shirtless Naruto clones stretched all along a huge waterfall, but Lily couldn't tell what they were doing. Kakashi and Yamato were at the food of the waterfall. Yamato was surrounded by wooden poles and was holding his hand out while Kakashi was reading one of his books while occasionally glancing Naruto's way. She was at the foot of the waterfall in three short leaps but her speed seal was almost out of chakra and she doubted that it would last much longer.

"Naruto!" she called impatiently. All of the Naruto clones turned to face her and Lily felt her fur begin to fluff up under the hard gazes of so many clones.

"What do you want," Naruto asked tiredly. "I'm training and I don't really want to face the reminder of what I did to my best friend."

Lily clawed at the ground in anger. "I don't want to listen to your self-pity trip!" she snarled.

"She's starting to sound exactly like Sakura," Kakashi chuckled to Yamato as he walked over to meet Lily while Yamato remained behind to hold his stance.

"Sakura is trying out the third seal," Lily directly at Naruto. "She's going to use the third seal for some jutsu called Creation Rebirth."

Kakashi's visible eye widened in surprise at the mention of the dangerous jutsu that shortened the user's life tremendously. "What Sakura uses the third seal for is her decision," he said calmly.

Lily shook her head stubbornly and felt her pleading eyes lock onto Naruto. "In order to successfully activate the seal the desired jutsu needs to be completed within seconds of the seal's activation," she explained quickly. "But, Sakura can't practice Creation Rebirth beforehand. And in order for this to work, Sakura needs to be inches away from death."

Naruto's eyes flashed red at the threat on Sakura's life, but he quickly pushed it aside and he jumped down from the waterfall to face Lily. "Granny Tsunade wouldn't let Sakura die," he growled. "If Sakura fails to use Creation Rebirth, Granny will heal her and they'll try again later."

"You don't understand anything!" Lily shouted exasperatedly. "There are no second chances with this seal. If Sakura fails to do this jutsu, the chakra flooding through her system will kill her if the wound doesn't."

"Sakura is capable of doing this," Naruto whispered, trying to convince himself. His fists were clenched now and he was starting to shake gently as Lily's words started to sink in.

"I came to get you so that you can stop her," Lily barked. "She won't listen to me, and I'm hoping that she'll listen to you."

"You shouldn't interfere with this Naruto," Kakashi said from behind his book. "Sakura is a smart, capable ninja, and she doesn't need you two interfering."

Naruto looked uneasily from Kakashi to Lily. Finally he ran over to his belongings and threw on his shirt. "I'll just make sure that she's okay," he mumbled to Kakashi. "I won't be able to focus if I don't know that she's okay."

Lily visibly relaxed while Naruto talked to Kakashi quickly. "I can carry you back quicker than you can run," she said a little smugly. "But, we need to leave now because I don't have enough chakra to stay in my speed form for another few minutes."

"You used all that chakra terrorizing me this morning," Naruto snapped while he jumped on Lily's back.

Lily grunted a little under Naruto's weight, but didn't say anything while she sped off back towards Konoha. While she was in speed form her wings weren't strong enough to support her in flight, but they served well as something for Naruto to hold onto for dear life while she ran.

They barely made it to the hokage tower when Lily's speed chakra ran out and she transformed back with a 'poof'. Naruto jumped off her the second he sensed that her chakra was up and leapt up the building and through the window, into Tsunade's office. Lily flew in after him and purposely landed on Tsunade's desk, scattering all of the papers.

"So, where's Sakura?" Naruto snapped at Lily.

"I don't know, they must've moved when I left," Lily whispered fearfully.

"You dragged me away from training for nothing!" Naruto shouted. "I knew that Sakura would be fine, but you planted this seed of doubt in my head and I couldn't ignore it."

Lily bowed her head and took the abuse. The words of comfort that Sakura would be okay hadn't comforted her, it only gave her a greater sense of dread.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to Naruto. "You're right, I know nothing and I don't deserve to be Sakura's partner. You won't have to worry about me getting in your way anymore."

For a second, Naruto felt ashamed that he had hurt the fox kit so much, but his hot temper quickly pushed it aside and he scoffed. "You need to get over whatever's bugging you, because if you don't I won't be the only one you hold back."

"Naruto! Why are you talking to Lily like that?"

Lily turned around and felt her heart lighten when she saw an exhausted looking Sakura standing in the doorway with Tsunade at her side. Without even thinking, she jumped off the desk, ran across the room and jumped into Sakura's arms and quietly cried into her shirt.

"I'm okay," Sakura assured her. "You don't need to be so scared."

"Are you okay Sakura?" Naruto asked. "Did the Creation Rebirth go well?"

Sakura nodded and continued to stroke and comfort Lily. "The seal activation went perfectly and Lady Tsunade said that it couldn't have gone better if she hoped. I'm fine Lily."

Lily continued to cry and she was shaking now, as if the terror of losing Sakura affected her health as well. She continued to cry for a few more minutes until the fear and the overuse of speed chakra exhausted her to the point of falling into deep sleep.

"I can't believe she feels so strongly about you already Sakura," Naruto commented in awe after Lily fell asleep. "Haven't you known each other for about a week?"

"She's still a kit Naruto," Sakura scolded. "Her mother was killed and she has no one else. I'm her family and foxes are very close to their family."

"She didn't seem so terrified when she interrupted my training," Naruto defended himself. "And since when did you know so much about foxes?"

Sakura ignored him and looked at Tsunade before gaving a little bow. "Do you need anything Lady Tsunade before I head home?"

Tsunade glared at the scattered papers and then at the sleeping kit, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stay mad at the adorable sleeping bundle. "I'll have someone else clean up this mess," she sighed. "You and Lily both need rest. Remember what I told you about your fourth seal."

"I will," Sakura promised. Sakura started walking back out the door and motioned with her head for Naruto to follow her. Naruto quickly followed and they walked in silence for a few moments before Sakura broke the silence.

"Thank you," she said quietly. "I know that you feel guilty about what happened on our last mission, but I want to thank you for leading me to Lily."

Naruto looked at Sakura in surprise. "You're thanking me for nearly killing you?" he asked in disbelief.

"No," Sakura said firmly. "I'm thanking you for leading me to Lily. You can either take my thank you and move on from what happened, or you can wallow in guilt and remain standing still."

They walked the rest of the way to Sakura's apartment without speaking. When Naruto turned to leave Sakura caught his wrist and wouldn't let go. "Thank you," she repeated.

Naruto sighed and turned back. "You're welcome. I'm happy that you both have each other."

"She's not the only family I have."

With a small blush forming on her face, Sakura stood on her tiptoes and gave Naruto a light kiss on the cheek. Naruto stood rooted to the spot for several moments after Sakura had entered her apartment and closed the door, feeling something besides guilt and rage for the first time in a while.

**A/N- REVIEW! Oh and just to clarify, Sakura doesn't have a part of the Kyuubi in her, just a piece of his chakra. **


	7. Strength

Lily woke up some time during the middle of the night. With a yawn, she sat up and noticed that she was in Sakura's bedroom, with a sleeping Sakura right next to her. Lily stretched each stiff limb while she assessed Sakura's condition.

Even though she was in a deep sleep, dark circles were under Sakura's eyes and her skin was slightly paler than its usual shade. It was clear that she was going to be exhausted for a while. Sakura shivered slightly when Lily moved her warm pelt away and Lily took the blanket in her teeth and pulled it up to Sakura's shoulders.

Quietly, Lily opened the window and, with one last glance at Sakura, jumped out and took flight. The village of Konoha was flooded in moonlight and Lily could see everything as clear as day. She made it to her destination, the training grounds, after a quick flight to stretch her wings. The training grounds were always empty at this time of night, and Lily often snuck out to do some more training.

Lily inspected her seal and sighed when she noticed that it was still faded. _I guess I won't be able to work on speed tonight_, she thought sourly.

She paced around the training grounds for a while before she heard something rustle in the trees. Lily faced the noise and raised her tail in aggression while her teeth were bared in a snarl. The noise got louder until a pair of hungry, yellow eyes peered from the shadows of the trees. The owner of the eyes padded out of the darkness of the trees and Lily noted her pursuer's appearance.

It was a large, male, gray wolf. His eyes were sharp with hunger and relief at having found something to eat. He slowly stalked up to Lily, who was frozen to the spot in fear, and barked in laughter.

"**Well, well, look who it is,"** he barked. **"I thought I had already killed you, but I recognize that kit scent."**

Lily shook off her fear and leaned back in an aggressive stance. **"I survived the first time that you attacked me," **she barked back. **"I'm not a helpless kit anymore. You'll be the one running away with your tail in-between your legs!"**

The wolf howled in laughter and launched himself at Lily. Lily pulled her wings in close and rolled to the side before the wolf made contact. While he tried to shift his weight to attack again, Lily darted underneath his belly and dug her chakra, sharpened claws across his soft underbelly. The wolf growled in pain and caught Lily's hind leg with his paw while she tried to get out of underneath his belly. Lily winced in pain and used her wings to fly a few meters away from the predator so she could regain her composure. Her hind leg stung terribly and she could smell the metallic scent of blood, but she ignored it.

Lily quickly realized that she wasn't fast enough yet in her normal form to defeat an enemy with such superior speed compared to hers. She lifted her paw to break her speed seal, but the wolf closed the distance between them in one huge bound and squashed her with his two massive paws. She cried out in pain and reached her paw behind the wolf's front paws and broke, what she thought was, the speed seal.

Lily gasped when she sensed the immediate surge of powerful chakra flooding her system, and noticed right away that she had broken the wrong seal. _Shit_! she thought inwardly. The wolf, sensing the sudden surge of power beneath him, pressed down with all his weight. _I'm not strong enough!_ Lily thought despairingly. With all her strength and determination, Lily forced the second seal's chakra and into strengthening her entire frame and felt the familiar cloud of smoke appear when she transformed.

The wolf jumped off of her and started coughing the smoke from his lungs. **"What the hell was that?"** he demanded in-between coughs.

The smoke began to clear and the wolf felt his eyes widen in surprise when he saw a figure even bigger than him, standing where Lily had been seconds before. The red fur, wings, bushy tail and black mark on her right leg, revealed to him that this was the same kit that he had almost eaten heartbeats before.

Lily was now twice his height and had strong muscles all over her body. Her muzzle was slightly wider, and her teeth looked reinforced. Her claws were short compared to the rest of her, but they looked sharp enough to gut the wolf in two in a heartbeat. Lily's wings, however, went through the biggest change; they were huge and could easily support her massive bulk in flight.

Lily quickly looked over her new look and let out a throaty laugh. "**Well this id different!"** she cried, gleefully. Turning her attention back to the, now trembling, wolf she gave him a threatening fox grin. **"I still owe you for hurting me when I was a defenseless kit."**

The wolf tucked his tail in-between his legs, a sign of submission, and whimpered. **"I'll leave, just, please don't hurt me,"** he begged.

"**I don't think so, not until you feel the pain that you caused me,"** Lily snarled. She took one massive step towards him and pinned him under her two front paws. While she prepared to aim for his throat, Lily felt the weirdest sensation overwhelming her. Pity. Pity for the worthless creature that was cowering underneath her feet. With a sigh, Lily stepped off and turned her back to him. **"If I even scent you around here again," **she warned. **"You'll be limping away broken, if you even walk away at all."**

The wolf whimpered at the threat and rolled back onto his feet and sprinted back towards the safety of the woods. Lily watched him go feeling a little disgusted with herself for not leaving her mark on the pitiful predator. Before she could change her mind and chase after him, exhaustion overwhelmed her and she looked at her new strength seal to find that it was almost completely faded.

_That's right_, she remembered tiredly. _The first time the seal is unlocked, it drains quickly._

She closed the strength seal and changed back into her normal form. Lily stretched her wings to fly, but she didn't have the energy to beat them even once. With her tail dragging in the dust, Lily began the long trek back to Sakura's apartment.

* * *

Sakura searched around Konoha frantically for Lily who had been missing when she had woken up late-morning. She feared that Lily had run away during the night, but she quickly pushed the terrifying idea aside. Searching Konoha for a small fox kit was incredibly difficult, but the seal on Sakura's arm tugged her in the general direction of where Lily must be.

She found Lily, fast asleep and shaking with exhaustion, about a mile on the edge of town underneath the shelter of someone's front porch. Smiling with relief, Sakura moved to scoop Lily up when she noticed the long gash running down her back leg. Sakura pulled Lily out, being careful not to move her leg, and sprinted home to treat her.

Once she made it to her apartment, she unlocked the door and walked inside. It was small, but Sakura's parents hadn't left behind much money when they died, and it was one of the few places she could afford. There was one small kitchen and bathroom and the bedroom was tucked to the side of the main room with a television standing in the corner.

Sakura put Lily on the bed and quickly healed the wound. Whatever had hurt her, it was big. Sakura gently inspected the rest of her body for any other wounds. Out of habit, she traced Lily's seal and gasped in horror.

The second seal was scorching hot, which only happened after it had been activated for the first time.

"What have you done," Sakura whispered out of both fear and anger. Anger quickly taking over her actions, Sakura shook Lily roughly.

"Stop," Lily whimpered tiredly.

"Wake up, now," Sakura ordered.

Lily knew when Sakura used that tone that she was pissed. Groggily, she pushed herself up and let out a huge yawn. "I'm sorry I snuck out," she whispered without meeting Sakura's blazing emerald eyes. "I wanted to train and I fell asleep on my way back."

"You know that's not what I'm mad about," Sakura said sternly. "You activated your second seal without my consent. You could have killed yourself with all that wild chakra running through your system!"

"I was attacked by the same wolf that attacked me when you found me," Lily spoke up defensively. "I tried to activate my speed seal, but he was pinning me to the ground and I accidentally broke the second seal."

Sakura sat down heavily on the bed and traced her fingers along Lily's seal. "What did you channel your chakra into?"

Lily sat up straighter. "I channeled it into strength," she said proudly. "I have a strength form now! I was strong enough to scare off a full-grown wolf and I was even probably almost as tall as Naruto! I can't wait to show it to you."

"I look forward to seeing it," Sakura assured her. "Tomorrow when we're both up to full strength we'll continue our training."

**A/N- Please review!**


	8. First Mission

Sakura grunted in frustration when Lily overpowered her super strength, again. They were in Sakura's favorite training grounds, the one with all the craters, and they were testing Lily's newfound strength. So far, Lily had been able to shake off Sakura's chakra-strengthened punches as if they were nothing.

Lily smirked smugly when she watched Sakura pick herself up from the ground. "I told you," she smirked. "I'm strong."

"How about a full on sparring match?" Sakura asked while she pulled out a few kunai.

"Sure!" Lily began pacing around Sakura, waiting for her to make the first move.

Sakura threw her kunai and Lily easily knocked them back with her tail. When she was in her strength form, Lily also had a very formidable defense with both her wings and fur that was difficult for any kunai to scratch. Sakura continued her assault with kunai, but Lily knocked each one back. When Sakura tried to get close enough to punch her, Lily would easily take flight and avoid it.

After Sakura kept up the offensive for a couple minutes, Lily decided to strike back. Lily used chakra to lengthen her claws and she closed the distance between them in one swift bound. They clashed, kunai and claws, and Lily used her superior weight and strength to push Sakura back. Sakura used a chakra enhanced sweep kick to knock Lily off of her hind paws.

Lily jumped back with the impact of Sakura's kick and beat her powerful wings to carry her four yards into the air. She tucked her front paws into her chest and did a backwards summersault in the air, and used the speed when she was coming out of it to bowl into Sakura. Sakura cried out in pain when she felt a rib break and glared at Lily when she realized that she had been pinned underneath Lily's massive paws.

"Are you okay?" Lily asked in concern.

"I'm fine," Sakura grunted.

Lily tilted her head and gave Sakura a fox grin. "Does this mean I win?"

Sakura nodded reluctantly and Lily stepped off of her and closed her strength seal. After the smoke cleared and Lily shook herself, Sakura had already healed her rib. It had been almost a month since Lily had accidentally broken the second seal and she had grown very skilled in her chakra control and combat. For some reason, because of the Kyuubi chakra, she had matured much quicker than what would be normal for a red fox. Lily was now a full grown red fox and her pelt had lost the fluffy coat and was now sleek and shiny.

They hadn't gone on any missions together yet, and Sakura was starting to lose her temper at being stuck in Konoha. Tsunade had assured them that they would be going on a mission soon and that if Lily proved to be a valuable asset to the mission then she would be proclaimed an official ninja fox. At the thought of her headband being just within reach, Lily had trained with her entire might to master her speed and strength forms before even attempting the third seal.

Lily was pacing around Sakura while Sakura caught her breath when Naruto jumped into the clearing with a huge smile on his face.

"Sakura!" he greeted enthusiastically. "Granny Tsunade has a mission for us!"

Sakura grinned and let Naruto pull her to her feet and into an embrace. "Finally!" Sakura cried joyfully when she pulled away from Naruto and picked up Lily. "We can finally show off all of the hard work we've put into our training."

Lily grinned and jumped out of Sakura's arms. "After this mission I can finally get my headband," Lily exclaimed. "Let's go now."

Without bothering to wait for a reply, she took off towards the village with Sakura and Naruto barely keeping up with her. When they made it to Tsunade's office Lily burst right through the door without bothering to knock.

"We're here Granny," Lily said, using her new nickname for Tsunade that she got from Naruto.

Sakura and Naruto entered soon after and Sakura quietly scolded Lily for bursting into Tsunade's office so rudely.

"I have a mission for you three," Tsunade said from behind her desk. "Because this is Lily's first mission and Sakura's first mission since being sealed, I am only going to give you a C, borderline B, rank mission. Naruto, you're going mainly because I know that you would bug me if I sent Sakura away without you."

Naruto grinned at Sakura and Sakura giggled. Tsunade raised her eyebrow at them but decided not to press on it. "You'll be transporting a scroll to our allies of the Sand," she explained. "This scroll contains some information that I believe the Kazekage will find useful."

"Why is this a B rank?" Sakura asked.

Tsunade pulled out a very small scroll and beckoned Lily to come closer. Lily jumped agilely on top of the desk and waited.

"This scroll explains the process that we used to create the seal that I put on you and Lily," Tsunade began. "Because the Akatsuki took the Shukaku that was sealed inside of Gaara's body, Gaara's power has dropped considerably. I have been in contact with him and I believe that he can use this seal to separate the demon chakra that mixed with his own. Gaara and I both believe that he can use this seal to create more of Skukaku's chakra in a seal like yours, Sakura."

Lily looked at the small scroll in Tsunade's hands that held the secret to a considerably large power increase. "Why is this only ranked C, Granny?" Lily asked.

Tsunade's vein in her forehead began to poke out in irritation. "This is only ranked C because no enemy villages know about you yet," she said. "I would send other ninjas to complete this mission, but the Sand Council wants to see the product of this seal before their Kazekage tries it."

"I'm a living, breathing being," Lily said coldly. "I'm not an experiment."

"I know," Tsunade said with a wave of her hand. "But the Sand Village is hardly going to perform an unknown jutsu without seeing the outcome in flesh and blood."

Tsunade pulled out a kunai and took Lily's paw and gave it a gentle prick to draw blood. Using the blood she drew a seal on the scroll. "This seal absolutely can't fall into enemy hands," she explained when she finished the seal. "I'm going to use a trick that Jiraiya taught me. Using this seal and Lily's blood, Lily will be the seal's protector."

"Wouldn't it be better if Sakura or Naruto protected it?" Lily asked while she licked the blood off of her paw.

"No," Tsunade said firmly. "It has to be you."

Lily sighed and held her head high. "What do I have to do? Carry it on my back or something?"

Tsunade smiled and shook her head. "Open your mouth," she said with a wide grin.

* * *

Naruto lead the way to the Sand Village with Sakura close behind and Lily bringing up the rear. They had left Konoha a couple of hours ago and they were trying to keep a brisk pace so they could reach the Sand Village as quickly as possible.

Sakura slowed down a little so she was next to Lily. "How are you doing?" she asked.

Lily scoffed and shook her head. "Just splendid," she said sarcastically. "Let's see how energetic you are after you've had a scroll shoved down your throat using a weird jutsu."

Sakura chuckled. "I guess I would be lagging a little," she agreed. "If you would like, I could carry you even though you're too big for my shoulder."

"What can I say?" Lily laughed with her. "I'm an adult now, thanks to the seal."

"You're in an awful hurry to mature," Naruto observed from the front.

"You would be too if Granny refused to give you a mission until you were an adult," Lily snapped. Her temper tended to be short when it came to Naruto and it didn't take much from him to make her fur bristle.

When the sun started to set Sakura suggested that they stop and make camp. They found a sheltered clearing that had a source of water not too far away. Naruto scowled in impatience, he wanted to keep going, but Lily, who didn't want to keep going in the dark, happily gathered some wood to make a fire.

"Is this enough?" she asked when she came back a few minutes later with a large bundle of wood being kept in place by her wings.

Sakura smiled and relieved Lily of her load. "This is plenty," she assured her. She quickly set them up and made a small fire that wouldn't draw too much attention.

Lily shook herself and curled up close to the warmth of the fire. "How much farther is it to the Sand Village?"

Naruto looked over his shoulder and replied, "Another day if we all hurry and pull our weight."

"Don't throw that attitude at me!" Lily snapped. "I'm doing the best that I can!"

"If your best was any better than we would still be on our way!"

Sakura put her hand on Lily's shoulder and scowled at Naruto. "I need a rest too," she said in Lily's defense. "Neither of us have your endurance. It's okay, we can afford to lose a few hours for rest."

Naruto sighed in defeat and nodded. "Okay Sakura," he said with a forced smile. "I'll take the first watch, you two can rest."

"Thank you Naruto," Sakura said with a big smile. "I think four hours of rest will be plenty, I'll relieve you of watch after two hours okay?"

"Sounds good Sakura, sleep well."

**A/N- Thanks for reading! REVIEW!**


	9. Fight

Sakura woke up Naruto and Lily when the sun had started to peek over the horizon. She had planned to wake them up after two hours, but they were both fast asleep and Sakura didn't have the heart to wake them up.

Lily stretched and beat her powerful wings a couple of times. "I feel so refreshed," she announced. "I'm sorry for slowing you guys down yesterday, I promise I'll keep up today."

"It's okay Lily," Sakura assured her. "If we push today, we'll probably be able to cut the remaining time to the Sand Village in half."

Naruto jumped to his feet and gave a big yawn. "Let's go!"

Sakura giggled while Naruto shoved some food in his mouth while gathering up his belongings. She pulled two different colored food bars out of her bag and pulled the red one out if its wrapper and handed it to Lily while she ate the one in the green wrapper.

"What's in the red one Sakura?" Naruto asked while he watched Lily chomp down on it.

Sakura attached her bag to her back and threw sand on the fire. "That one is meant for Lily. It has raw meat and other essential nutrients for foxes in it. I wrap it in red so I don't mix them up with mine."

Naruto grimaced in disgust when he looked closer at Lily's breakfast and saw the raw, processed meat. "Let's go before I lose _my_ breakfast."

They all jumped into the trees and kept up a quick pace towards the Sand Village. The rest had done them all good, and they could keep speeding through the forest without feeling too tired. They didn't say anything for a couple hours when Lily's ears started to twitch and she quickly turned around and stopped on her branch.

"We're being followed," she growled to Sakura and Naruto who had stopped and turned around seconds after she had.

Sakura and Naruto both pulled out a kunai and took a defensive stance. Lily sniffed the air and kept her ears pricked for any sign of aggression. Suddenly, shuriken started to fly towards them from the sides. Sakura and Naruto knocked them away easily with their kunai while Lily dodged every single one as if they moved painfully slow for her.

"Who's there?" Naruto demanded.

Their attackers chuckled and stepped out of the trees. Naruto's eyes flashed when he saw the sound headbands on their foreheads. Their attackers pulled out more shuriken and sprinted towards them before they hurled the sharp throwing stars. Sakura and Lily jumped to avoid them and met their attackers head on.

Sakura channeled chakra into her fist and punched the closest sound ninja in the face while Lily agilely flew around another one's neck and dug her chakra sharpened claws into his back. Lily grinned in satisfaction before the sound ninja that they attacked went up in a puff of smoke.

"Shadow Clones!" Lily exclaimed.

"Sakura, Lily behind you!" Naruto shouted.

Lily spun around in midair and dug her claws into the real sound ninja who had tried to attack her from behind. The sound ninja pulled out a kunai in each hand and aimed for Lily's throat. Lily focused some chakra into her wings, to strengthem, and knocked the kunai back with her wings while she slashed at her opponents face.

She could smell the warm blood on her claws before she could see it, and she felt a great satisfaction. This was a test to prove that she was worthy to be a ninja fox and she wasn't willing to accept anything but victory. Lily clung to the struggling sound ninja for a few more moments before she felt herself being yanked off by her opponent's ally. She landed on a branch lower than the two sound ninjas and glanced to her side. Naruto and Sakura were each facing a sound ninja, Sakura was holding her own and Naruto was finishing off his opponent.

_He'll help Sakura first,_ Lily thought a little coldly_. I'll have to deal with these two by myself._

The two sound ninja who were towering above her chuckled. The one she had clawed earlier pulled out a twin dragon blade and the one who had pulled her off pulled out a hook sword.

"You don't stand a chance," the one with the twin dragon blaze sneered while he twirled his weapon in a skilled form.

"Boys and their toys," Lily sneered back. She glanced at her arm and noted that her speed and strength seal were full of chakra. She assessed her opponents and felt a bit of unease at her opponent's obvious skill with their weapons and decided that even with her superior defense in her strength form, she would still be at a disadvantage because her moves tended to be more sluggish when in her bigger form.

"Can't hit what you can't catch! Speed Seal Open!" she cried when she broke her speed seal.

Her body was surrounded by smoke and she disappeared in a red flash. The two sound ninja stiffened in surprise and they looked around for Lily. Before either of them could take a step, Lily was behind them and struck the back of their knees at full speed. They both cried out in agony and fell the twenty feet off the tree onto the hard earth.

Sakura and Naruto ran over to help Lily after defeating their opponents and felt their mouths drop open in surprise when they saw Lily standing over two sound ninja in her speed form with one paw on each of their throats and two dangerous looking weapons thrown a few feet away.

"Lily," Sakura gasped. "You defeated both of them?"

Lily looked up at the sound of Sakura's voice and grinned. "I rammed into their knees at full speed and I felt their knees shatter, they won't be running anywhere for a while."

Naruto whistled. "Damn Lily," he gasped. "For your first real battle, you did great."

Lily scoffed at Naruto's praise, the only praise she wanted was from Sakura. Sakura stepped forward and pulled out a couple of small needles from her pouch and pierced them in the two sound ninja's necks.

"This will keep their limbs immobile for hours," she explained to Lily when Lily looked at her with a confused look.

Lily stepped off and closed her speed seal. "What should we do with them Sakura?" she asked.

Naruto stepped forward and pulled the one with claw marks all over his face up by his collar. "What did you attack us for?" he demanded furiously.

The sound ninja tried to move, but whatever the needle was dipped in wouldn't let him move a bit. "We were the messengers," he spat furiously.

"What's the message?" Naruto asked.

The second sound ninja moved his eyes so they rested on Lily. "We know what you are. We know that you have Kyuubi chakra in you and we will take you and your master to discover the secret."

Naruto's eyes flashed red when the sound nin threatened to take Sakura away. "Who is 'we'?" he demanded.

"Lord Orochimaru," the first sound nin replied. "He plans to create an army of sealed creatures. He will get your pet and the girl."

Sakura clenched her fists and Lily's fur bristled in both anger and anxiety. "Why tell us his plan?" Sakura asked.

The sound nin started to laugh. "Sasuke wanted you to know that he plans to come for you, personally."

"S-sasuke?" Sakura stuttered in astonishment.

Lily glanced at Sakura and Naruto and wondered why his name caused such a reaction. She had heard his name mentioned occasionally but whenever she asked any questions about him, they brushed her off.

"He won't lay a finger on Sakura!" Naruto shouted in pure fury.

Sakura gave Naruto a small smile and felt herself blush. "Lily and I won't be experiments for Orochimaru's sick games. We'll save Sasuke from Orochimaru, when he comes for me we'll take him instead."

Naruto nodded approvingly and pulled out a kunai. "What do you want to do Sakura? Should we leave them or make sure they can't report to Orochimaru?"

"They already know about Lily and me," Sakura said tiredly. "Don't waste your energy."

The sound nin glared at them, but they paid them no attention. The team turned their backs to the defeated enemies and Naruto lead them back to the path to the Sand Village. Naruto lead them at a quick pace while Lily brought up the rear to watch their backs. None of them talked for a couple of hours when Sakura finally spoke up.

"You fought well Lily," she said approvingly. "You're a natural, I'm sure that Lady Tsunade will give you your headband when she hears of your skills."

Lily felt her pelt warm at the praise. "Thank you Sakura. What happened to the two sound ninja that and Naruto were fighting?"

"We couldn't risk letting all of them live," Sakura explained bluntly.

"I guess that makes sense," Lily muttered uncomfortably. "Are you worried that we'll be ambushed again on our way back?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. But, I doubt that they'll attack us again when we're already on high alert."

Lily shook her head a little and picked up her pace. They encountered their first sighting of sand hours later, causing Lily to groan. Lily hated the way the sand in her pelt felt. Naruto and Sakura looked at each other and sighed, they didn't like the sand any more than Lily did.

"I always hate crossing the sand," Naruto complained after his foot sunk for the fifth time in the sand.

"Naruto you idiot," Sakura scolded. "Walking on sand is similar to walking on water, just focus some chakra into your feet."

Lily circled above their heads and smiled sympathetically. "If you want, I can change into my strength form and carry you both, it would be no trouble."

Naruto opened his mouth to accept the offer, but Sakura punched him on the shoulder to shut him up. "Save your chakra," she answered. "But be careful not to overexert yourself, it's hot and I don't want you to get heat stroke."

"I'm fine," Lily assured her. "There's so much wind blowing, I'm barely beating my wings."

"Sakura," Naruto whined. "We would save so much time if we flew there, and I know that we both hate the sand."

Sakura bit her lip in thought and Lily dove down and landed roughly on Naruto's head. Naruto cried out in pain when Lily's claws pulled on his hair and he tried to shake her off.

"I really don't mind Sakura," Lily said while she ignored Naruto's demands for her to get off.

"Fine," Sakura said begrudgingly.

Naruto sighed in relief when Lily jumped off his head and landed a couple yards away from them. "Strength Seal Open," Lily said when she broke the strength seal.

Lily knelt down in the sand and waited patiently for Sakura and Naruto to climb on. Sakura jumped on Lily's back and sat in front of the base of Lily's wings. They were used to this arrangement, and Sakura preferred sitting closer to Lily's head where the ride wasn't as bumpy. Naruto looked at the two and climbed up on Lily's back and tried to find a comfortable place to sit.

"Naruto stop pulling my fur," Lily complained.

"Forgive me for now knowing how to ride a flying fox," Naruto mumbled.

Finally, Naruto got settled and gently grasped Lily's fur to secure his position. Sakura pat Lily on her neck and Lily beat her massive wings a couple of times to get them airborne. Lily climbed up sixty feet off the ground and flew with the wind towards the direction that Sakura pointed her in.

"I can see the village," Lily called back after fifteen minutes of flying.

Naruto shifted on Lily's back in excitement. "We haven't seen Gaara since our rescue mission here. I wonder how he's handling the loss of Shukaku."

"I guess we'll find out soon," Sakura answered.

Lily landed just outside of the entrance to the village and changed back once Sakura and Naruto were off. Naruto held his head high and walked through the entrance and a huge smile spread across his face when he saw their welcoming party.

"Hey Gaara! What's up?"

**A/N- Review! I keep getting all these hits on this story, but not that many reviews. Please review, I want to know what you think of my story.**


	10. Shukaku

**A/N- Review! I keep getting all these hits on this story, but not that many reviews. Please review, I want to know what you think of my story.**

Gaara stood in front of them with his arms folded over his chest and his Kazekage robes flowing in the breeze. He acknowledged Naruto's enthusiastic greeting with a curt nod of his head before he gave Lily a hard stare. Lily's tail twitched uncomfortably and she tried to hold her head confidently.

"Welcome to the Sand Village," Gaara said. "The Council will gather in two hours, that should give you time to clean up after your journey."

"Thanks Gaara," Naruto said with a grin.

Gaara motioned with his hand for a sand shinobi to come forward. "Show our ambassadors to where they will be staying. Also, show them where the Council will meet; I don't want them to get lost."

Naruto scoffed indignantly. "Why do people doubt my sense of direction so much? I led us here didn't I?"

Sakura shared an amused glance with Lily before she addressed Gaara. "Thank you for your hospitality. We will see you in two hours then."

"Good." Without another word, Gaara turned and walked towards the largest building in the Sand Village.

"Gaara seriously needs to work on his social skills," Naruto complained with his hands behind his head.

Lily stretched her hind legs and yawned. "Can we go get clean and rest now? My pelt is starting to feel all scratchy from all of this sand."

Sakura nodded and they followed the sand shinobi to a small building that was close to the largest building in the village, which they assumed was the Kazekage's office. The building was clean and, to the three's relief, sand free. The sand ninja lead them upstairs and pointed out two different rooms.

"This room will be for the medic nin and the fox," he explained when he opened the door to a rather large room. "Each room has its own bathroom, shampoos and conditioners have been provided for all of you."

Naruto grinned when he saw the beautiful room. "Let's go see my room now!"

The sand shinobi closed the door to Sakura's and Lily's room and opened the other door. Naruto's room was considerably smaller, probably only a third of the size of the other room, the walls were the color of clay and sand covered the floor.

"What!" Naruto gasped in disbelief. "Why is my room less fancy than Sakura's?"

"The Kazekage specifically said that this was to be your room, I believe he told me that with a small smile," the sand shinobi laughed. "Be wary, at night the sand blows into this room, you'll probably want to securely close the shutters before you leave."

Naruto groaned and their escort left with a small smile on his face. "This sucks," Naruto whined. "Gaara has a weird sense of humor."

Lily peeked from behind Sakura's legs and barked out a laugh. "I hope your taste in sand improves," she teased. "Because it looks like you'll be living in it for the rest of our visit."

Sakura giggled with Lily. "Let's go take a shower," she said while she stretched. "Don't get covered with sand again after you've showered, Naruto," Sakura laughed with a wave when she left the room.

Lily smirked at Naruto one last time before following Sakura into their room. She shook her pelt for the tenth time since they got there before jumping on the bed. "Is there a jutsu or anything to prevent sand from getting in my pelt?" she asked while Sakura took off her pouch and rummaged through it until she found a clean pair of clothes and the small kit of supplies she used to clean Lily.

"Not that I know of," she answered while she smoothed out the wrinkles. "I'll clean you first, Lady Tsunade would pummel me if you looked like a desert rat when meeting with the Kazekage."

"Fine by me," Lily said with a fox grin.

Sakura was very thorough when cleaning Lily, giving Lily's pelt two washes, combing out the sand when the fur was still wet, drying it gently with a towel and smoothing it down with a thorough brushing. Lily loved being groomed, but she especially loved not having sand in her pelt anymore.

"All done," Sakura said after forty-five minutes of grooming. "Now, just rest while I freshen up."

"Thanks Sakura," Lily sighed contently while she trotted out of the bathroom and jumped onto the bed.

She must have fallen asleep, because the next thing Lily heard was Sakura tossing her bag onto their bag. Groggily, Lily sat on her hind legs and beat her wings a couple of times.

"Are we heading to the Kazekage's office now?" she asked Sakura.

"Yes. Why don't you go wake up Naruto while I finish getting ready."

Lily groaned, but didn't argue while she jumped off the bed and slipped out of the room. Naruto's door was shut, and Lily started to scratch at the door.

"Wake up, baka!" she shouted. "We're going to meet with the Kazekage!"

She could hear something crash on the floor, causing Lily to grin. Naruto opened the door and glared down at the vixen who was sitting calmly in front of him.

"Are you ready to go yet?" Lily asked in exasperation.

Naruto grit his teeth and shut the door, almost squashing Lily's nose. Lily growled in anger and beat her wings so that she hovered just before the doorknob.

_This would be easier if I had thumbs,_ she thought while she tried to grip the doorknob with her paws. After a couple of tries, the door opened and Lily pushed her way through into the room to find Naruto sitting on his bed with his head in his hands.

"What's with you?" Lily asked while she landed on the ground and kicked the door shut. "Why do you hate me so much? Is it because Sakura spends so much time with me?"

Naruto looked up and Lily felt her heart pinch in pity when she saw the tears in his eyes. "I don't hate you," he said softly. "It's just…every time that I see you; I'm reminded of what I did to my best friend."

Lily tilted her head in confusion until she remembered the story that Sakura had told her about their seals. "You don't like looking at me," she began carefully. "Because I remind you about how you attacked Sakura when you used the Kyuubi's chakra. I thought that Sakura told you not to feel guilty about that?"

"I can't help it," he mumbled. "I love her."

They didn't talk for a few moments, Lily was too busy staring at Naruto in shock. "You love her?"

"Ever since we formed Squad 7," Naruto said with a small smile. "I've always had a crush on her, but she only had eyes for Sasuke. When Sasuke left, it broke Sakura's heart, and I promised to bring Sasuke back to make her happy again. All I want is for her to be happy, even if that means it's with someone else."

Lily sighed and jumped on Naruto's lap. "If you care about her so much, you should tell her. She has a right to know, and you have a right to be happy. You don't know if she still loves Sasuke. He hurt her pretty bad, and you kept her together."

Naruto stared at Lily's seal and sighed. "But, I don't want to ruin our friendship. I don't think I could bear losing her."

"If you two are as close as I think," Lily began carefully. "Then nothing will be able to hurt your friendship."

"Naruto! Lily! What's taking you two so long!" Sakura demanded impatiently from the hallway. "We're going to be late for our meeting."

Lily jumped off of Naruto and gave him a genuine smile. "If you want to talk to her in private, I'll leave you two alone."

Naruto gave Lily his sheepish grin and laughed. "I'll talk to her after our meeting with Gaara. But I want to thank you for listening to me."

"Does this mean we can be friends now?" Lily asked. "I know that it would mean a lot to Sakura."

"Believe it!" Naruto laughed. While still laughing he opened the door straight into a very impatient Sakura.

"Baka!" she shouted in his face. "Now we're going to be late."

"Sakura," Naruto whined. He shared a small grin with Lily who paced in-between Sakura's legs.

Sakura sighed and stepped over Lily to lead the way to Gaara's office, with a chuckling Naruto and Lily bringing up the rear.

* * *

Lily shifted uneasily in front of the Kazekage and the rest of the Council while a few sand nin examined hers and Sakura's seals. Gaara was reading the scroll that Lily had given to him after she released the jutsu that Tsunade had placed on it. His eyes didn't give any hint of emotion at what he was reading, but Lily could feel his eyes burn into her every now and then.

"This is a complex seal," the sand ninja holding Lily's arm observed. "It must take perfect chakra control to create it."

Sakura stepped in front of Gaara while Lily yanked her leg away and followed. "If you want to go through with this Lord Kazekage, I can create the seal for you. My chakra control isn't as good as Lady Tsunade's, but I know how this seal works more than she does, it takes someone who has this seal to fully understand how to create it."

Lily watched when a large man with paint on his face stand up and slam his fist on the table. "This is ridiculous!" he exclaimed. "A seal like this is dangerous, it could kill you Gaara if she messes up. Is it worth it? You're plenty strong without Shukaku, why do you want to do this?"

"That's enough Kankuro," Gaara said softly. He stood up and looked Sakura straight in the eyes. "Let's go talk in private."

Gaara walked out from behind the desk and offered his arm to Sakura. She looked at it in surprise, but took it and let Gaara escort her into a smaller room, leaving a confused Lily and a seething Naruto with the Council.

"No fair," Naruto whined. "If I offered my arm to Sakura like that I'd be pounded into the wall. And now we have to wait for them to finish talking about the seal."

Lily butted Naruto's leg with her head to get him to shut up. "We're in front of the Sand Council, baka," she hissed. "Save your love life for the trip home."

Naruto grinned sheepishly and turned to talk to Kankuro. They were in the middle of a heated discussion about Shadow Clones versus Puppets when Gaara lead Sakura out of the small room they were talking in.

"I will go through with the seal," Gaara said bluntly. "If what Sakura says is correct, this will incapacitate me for a couple of days. Kankuro, I want you to go with Sakura and Naruto to help Sakura prepare while I converse with the Council."

"Are you sure about this Gaara?" Kankuro asked with a worried tone.

"I made a promise to the people of this village to protect them," Gaara said solemnly. "If there is a chance of me regaining some of my former power, I will take it."

Kankuro looked at the ground and grit his teeth. Without another word he led Sakura and Naruto out of the room with Lily trotting behind. He led them into a small room with cushions lining the edges and a couple of windows. Sakura immediately walked over to the windows, closed them, and then sealed them to block any sound from entering or leaving. Next she gathered a couple of the pillows in the center for Gaara to sit on while she worked.

"I only need Lily in here once Gaara arrives and we start," she said, looking straight at Naruto. "I will need Lily to break the seal on the door to let outsiders in."

Naruto looked uneasily at Sakura. "Why won't you be able to break the seal on the door Sakura?"

Sakura sighed and gave Naruto a small smile. "Lady Tsunade learned the hard way to have someone in the room to help. Shizune told me that she had to break down Lady Tsunade's wall after I was sealed, Lady Tsunade and I were both unconscious."

"This is dangerous for you too?" Naruto asked in disbelief. "If that's the case, then I want to be in there with you!"

Sakura shook her head. "Lily would be less likely to be hurt by this process, because she has had it done on her before, chances are that she won't be hurt just by sitting on the sidelines."

Naruto opened his mouth to object, but Lily gently swiped at his leg with her forepaw. "She'll be fine," she told him. "I'll make sure she doesn't overexert herself."

Gaara arrived a minute later by himself. He muttered something to Kankuro, who grabbed a protesting Naruto by the collar and dragged him out.

"Let's get started then," Sakura said while motioning to the cushions she had arranged in the middle of the room.

Lily settled herself on one of cushions left on the side of the room. Her muscles were tense with anticipation and worry while Gaara knelt down on the cushions and took off his Kazekage robes and Sakura sealed the door.

Sakura took a deep breath and put on a confident smile. "Alright Gaara, let's get started."

* * *

Naruto paced anxiously right outside of the room where Sakura was sealing Gaara. He had been waiting for almost an hour, and he could almost feel his heart being torn out of his chest at each passing minute. Kankuro and Temari were leaning against the wall with their arms crossed while they waited for news of their brother's wellbeing.

"How long is this supposed to take Naruto?" Temari demanded.

"I don't know, I didn't even find out that Sakura was sealed until a couple weeks after it was done," Naruto admitted.

Temari grunted irritably and turned her back on him, causing Kankuro to grin. Nobody said anything else until they suddenly felt an enormous amount of dangerous chakra leak from the seal on the door.

Naruto felt his stomach knot up when he recognized Shukaku's dangerous chakra."Sakura!" Naruto shouted while he tried to open the door. "Are you okay! Please open the door! Sakura!"

Kankuro grabbed Naruto's arms and pulled him back. "We don't know what they're doing in there!" he shouted above Naruto's screams. "If we barge in, we'll only make it worse."

Naruto stopped struggling and hung limply in Kankuro's arms. The feeling of the chakra made their skin crawl, and they all tensed up to do something if the amount of chakra increased. After another half hour, the amount of chakra began to subside. The three waiting ninja sat taller and waited anxiously for the door to open.

Suddenly, the weight of chakra on the door began to lift and the doorknob started to rattle until it opened, revealing a bleeding Lily.

"They're okay," she said hoarsely while she leaned against the door frame. "They're both unconscious, but their hearts and breath sounds are strong."

Naruto ran past Lily into the room and saw that Sakura was collapsed next to Gaara. He scooped her up in his strong arms and felt hot chakra coming from her arm. _Why is her seal reacting like this_? He wondered.

Kankuro lifted Gaara while Naruto lifted Sakura and Temari inspected the wound on Lily's side. "We should take these three to the hospital," Temari said when she finished inspecting Lily's wound.

"Lead the way," Naruto said while he looked at Sakura's pale face.

**A/N- Thanks for the reviews! Oh and wait and see to find out if Naruto gets a companion ******


	11. Kaji

The first thing Sakura was aware of was the low steady beep of a heart monitor. She wiggled her fingers and felt the familiar device measuring her heartbeat and she could feel the light pinching of the IV that was in her arm. It was painfully obvious that she was a patient in the hospital, but she couldn't remember how she had ended up there. Something shifted on Sakura's bed, forcing Sakura to open her heavy eyes. Lily was fast asleep at the foot of her bed, and Sakura noted instantly that her side was bandaged.

"Lily," she croaked hoarsely.

Lily's ears twitched at the familiar sound and she forced herself into a sitting position, wincing slightly. "You're awake," she said happily. "You've been asleep for a couple of days; they even had to give you an IV because the Sand medics said that you couldn't afford to get dehydrated when you're in the desert."

Sakura nodded and sighed. "I'm still a little fuzzy about what happened during the sealing," she admitted. "What happened? The last thing I remember was Shukaku's chakra suddenly getting too out of control."

"Shukaku's chakra was separating from Gaara," Lily began a little fearfully. "It started forming tendrils and you were forcing them to form a seal, just like Granny Tsunade did to us. You were almost done, but one tendril got away and it was going to hit you." Lily looked at her bandaged side and gave a little fox grin. "I jumped in front of the chakra tendril before it could hit you, and you forced it back into the seal while I pulled myself away. Once the seal was done, Gaara passed out and you passed out right after. We were taken here, I was treated, and you and Gaara were given beds to rest in."

Sakura pulled Lily closer and took the bandages off. The wound went from the base of her wings to her back leg and it was healed sloppily. The wound was scabbing over and it had traces of infection in it. "It looks like they didn't even bother to heal you!" she exclaimed, outraged.

Lily gave a half-shrug. "They put some stuff on it and bandaged it, but the sand medic said that he wasn't a veterinarian."

"Healing is the same when it comes to burning basic infections," Sakura said coldly while she started to work on healing Lily's wound.

The wound closed, and the infection was gone completely in a matter of minutes. Lily thanked her and ran her tongue along her side to get the blood out of her fur. They enjoyed the silence until a very loud and obnoxious blonde burst through the door and practically knocked Lily off the bed when he engulfed Sakura in a tight hug.

"Sakura you're awake," he shouted happily. "You looked terrible when I brought you here, I was afraid that you had burned through all of your chakra."

"I'm just tired," she assured him. "How's Gaara? Is he awake?"

Naruto sat on the side of the bed and ignored the gentle nipping he was getting from a very ticked off Lily. "Gaara woke up yesterday, and has recovered for the most part. He's already returned to paperwork. But, he checks in on you a couple times a day."

Sakura groaned softly when she pushed herself up and she gave Naruto a small smile when he looked at her anxiously. "I need to go over the seal, to make sure that I did it right."

"You're too exhausted to work on the seal," Naruto told her sternly. "You can work on that when you've recovered."

Lily pushed Naruto out of the way and settled herself underneath Sakura's sealed arm. "I could give you some of my chakra," she offered. "If there's something wrong with the seal, it needs to be fixed right away and you're the only one who can do that."

Sakura smiled and gave Lily a small squeeze. "Thank you Lily," she said. "I wouldn't take it normally, but you're right, I need to inspect Gaara's new seal."

They called in a sand medic who checked Sakura's vitals and asked questions to make sure that she wasn't in too bad shape. Once the medic deemed her alright for travel, the IV was taken out and Naruto helped her to her feet. Sakura's legs gave right away, but Naruto scooped her up bridal style. He ignored her protests and jumped out of the hospital with Lily in tow. Lily's moves were still sluggish and Naruto had to slow down so she could keep up, but they still made it to Gaara's office quickly.

Gaara was doing paperwork when Naruto jumped through the window. He put Sakura down, but kept an arm around her waist to steady her while she walked up to Gaara's desk.

"How are you feeling Gaara?" she asked.

She could tell that he was still exhausted. There were bags under his eyes and his skin looked slightly paler than usual. His arm was covered with bandages and it hung limply at his side.

Lily walked up to Sakura's leg and pressed up against it. She closed her eyes and focused some of her own chakra into Sakura's chakra system. The instant more chakra was in her system, Sakura had more energy. She pushed Naruto's arm off of her and walked over to inspect Gaara's arm. After a couple of adjustments to the seal, Sakura stepped back and smiled.

"Congratulations Gaara," she said jokingly. "You're sealed. Do you want me to explain how to use the branch seals again?"

Gaara rubbed his arm before catching Sakura's eyes with his own. "I was wondering, what happens if I break the mail seal?"

Sakura and Lily both flinched. "The main seal is strictly Shukaku's chakra," Sakura explained slowly. "Lily and I have never broken the main seals, because if we do, it is very possible that we would be consumed by the Kyuubi's chakra and become a tailed demon. We're not willing to risk it, and I don't know how you would handle it."

Gaara nodded and rubbed his arm. "I thank you Sakura," he said softly. "There is no need for you to stay in Suna to help me learn this seal; I need to make this my own. You are welcome to stay and rest for as long as you need before you head back home."

Sakura bowed slightly. "Thank you Gaara, but Lady Tsunade expects us to return to Konoha as soon as we are able."

Naruto tilted his head in confusion. "But you just got out of the hospital. Will you be able to manage the trip?"

"That's why I have you," Sakura said with a grin.

Naruto groaned and Lily chuckled. Even Gaara managed a small twitch in the corner of his mouth.

* * *

Sakura was true to her word about using Naruto as a ride. They had barely made it an hour out of the Sand Village when she felt like she would collapse from exhaustion. Naruto wasted no time in helping her on his back and they were back en route within minutes. After an hour on Naruto's back, Sakura fell fast asleep and nothing Naruto said could wake her up. She barely woke up when they stopped for the night and Naruto set up camp.

The next day Sakura had a little more energy, but she was still too drained to travel on her own. With the threat of the sound ninja still ringing in their ears, Naruto covered the rear while Lily carried Sakura while in strength form. Lily's ears were constantly on high alert and Naruto scanned their backs multiple times. Even though she was exhausted, Sakura helped keep an eye open for any possible signs of attack.

"How's your strength chakra holding up Lily?" Sakura asked after another long hour of silence. "You shouldn't push yourself too hard."

Lily shook her head irritably. "I'm fine; you're the one who doesn't know when to quit pushing. We're making great time, and I bet that we'll arrive back in Konoha by this time tomorrow."

"We could make it there tonight if you would turn into your speed form," Naruto called from behind them.

"I would do that, but I won't be able to carry both Sakura and your fat ass," Lily shouted back, causing Sakura to giggle.

Naruto jumped ahead of Lily, forcing her to stop in her tracks. "I'm not fat," he whined defensively. "Actually, I was thinking you could make a shadow clone of yourself."

Lily tilted her head in confusion. "I don't think I could make a shadow clone. I can control my chakra well enough, but I can't do any jutsu because I can't form hand signs."

"What if I channel your chakra through my hand signs to make a shadow clone," Naruto said excitedly. "It couldn't hurt to try, and if it works then we'll make it back to the village in no time!"

Sakura looked thoughtful for a moment. "We could try it, I don't know if I approve of trying this just to speed up the trip home though."

Naruto grinned at her. "You worry too much, Sakura. Think of the possibilities if you can help Lily create shadow clones."

Sakura sighed in defeat and slid off of Lily's back with Naruto to catch her. Once they were out of the way, Lily closed her strength seal and opened her speed seal, causing her body to be engulfed in smoke. Lily sat down patiently in front of Naruto and Sakura in her speed form, but her tail was twitching nervously.

"I'm ready," she said steadily.

Naruto helped Sakura lean against the tree before he walked to stand behind Lily. He formed the necessary hand sign and put it against Lily's back.

"Now you need to focus your chakra into my hands, and I'll mold it into a shadow clone," Naruto instructed.

Lily closed her eyes in concentration and felt a warm chakra flow into the hand sign.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto cried.

Smoke surrounded Lily's body, causing Naruto to jump back in surprise. Sakura leaned forward anxiously and felt her breath catch in her throat while they waited for the smoke to clear. Finally, the smoke cleared and standing on the tree branch was Lily, along with a fox that was a little bigger than her. But, what made Naruto's and Sakura's hearts stop beating was that this fox had glowing red eyes and nine tails.

Naruto pulled out a kunai and took a defensive position in front of Sakura. His mouth was set in a tight line, but his eyes were wide in surprise. Lily's ears were perked in surprise at Naruto's reaction and she looked uneasily at the fox beside her.

"Why did you make me look so weird?" Lily asked in confusion.

"That's the Kyuubi, Lily," Sakura said in fear.

The demon fox shook his head and looked around his surroundings. His eyes rested on Lily who got in an offensive position. They stared at each other for a few heartbeats before he spoke.

"How did you summon me Kit?" he asked Naruto, his tone both cold and surprised. "I can feel myself sealed within you still, but yet you summoned me through this vixen?"

Lily bared her teeth in a snarl. "My name is Lily," she snarled.

The Kyuubi laughed and lashed his tails aggressively. "It's been years since I've fought, you will be my first. I can hardly risk hurting the Kit when the rest of me still resides in that damn seal."

Lily lunged forward, ignoring Naruto's and Sakura's cries and grabbed the Kyuubi's shoulder with her teeth. They wrestled on the branch, and suddenly they were falling towards the ground. The Kyuubi summoned fire to his paws and knocked Lily off and sent her pummeling to the ground. She yelped in pain upon impact and barely rolled out of the way in time to avoid the Kyuubi's finishing blow.

Her side was still sore from Gaara's sealing, and the land to the ground had only made the pain worse. "I may not be stronger, but I'm faster," she spat defiantly.

Before the Kyuubi could blink, she was behind him and took a swipe at his hind legs. He spun around and tried to bite her, but she was already gone. "Why am I so weak?" he snarled in frustration. "What did you do to my power!"

"You're a shadow clone," Lily jeered. "Naruto made a shadow clone of you using your own chakra, but I don't have enough of your chakra to make you invincible."

The Kyuubi snarled in fury and created a ring of fire, blocking himself from Lily's attacks. "I'm still more than a match for you. I am the demon fox."

He opened his mouth to say more, but he suddenly felt his little power being sucked from him. He swung around in fury and noticed that Lily was sitting calmly with her claw resting on her right leg.

"Looks like your summon is draining away my chakra," Lily said tiredly.

"I won't go back," he snarled.

Naruto jumped down to help Lily defeat the mini-Kyuubi. He pulled out a kunai and sharpened it using his Wind chakra. With the chakra, sharpened kunai, he cut through the ring of fire. The Kyuubi spun around in fury and snarled at Naruto.

"You can't kill me," Naruto said smugly. "If you kill me, you kill yourself. And if you kill Lily, you're killing the only way for you to leave my body for short periods of time."

The Kyuubi growled while weighing his options. He could smell the fear coming from Sakura above him, but killing a female, who couldn't even fight back, was not a level he would stoop to.

"Very well Kit," he said, dropping his tails. "I will stop the fight." He turned to Lily who was starting to tremble from the chakra drain. "Even though you are aided by my chakra, you are a skilled fighter. If you summon me again, I look forward to another round."

"Why would we ever summon you again?" Naruto asked in anger. "You destroyed the village; do you have any idea how many lives you took?"

The Kyuubi sat down and curled his tails at his feet. "Do not lose your temper for matters that you don't fully understand Kit," he snapped. "I did not attack your village on my own free will. I was forced."

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise. "Every time that I have talked to you in the past, you have always seemed like the cold demon from fourteen years ago. How do you expect me to believe that you aren't that monster?"

"How happy would you be if you were sealed inside a Kit for a crime you were forced to commit?" the Kyuubi snarled. "Out of all the times I could have overflowed your body with my own chakra, and possibly taken over, I chose not to. When you took too much of my chakra that you lost control, that was your fault Kit, not mine."

Lily, who was listening intently, collapsed on the ground in exhaustion. "The seal is almost drained," she panted. "Kyuubi, you said you were forced to attack Konoha. Who forced you?"

The Kyuubi looked at her intently, and his gaze softened a little at the determined look in Lily's eyes. "You may call me Kaji," he said after a moment. "And the one who forced me to destroy your village was Madara Uchiha."

**A/N- LOL. I figured I'd throw a little twist in there ;-D If you want to know what the heck is going on, I require at least 5 reviews. Ya hear that? 5 reviews= next chapter!**


	12. Duty

**A/N- If any of ya are wondering if Madara Uchiha really did sick the Kyuubi on the village ya should read the manga lol. Sorry for the long wait! I'll try to do better!**

* * *

Naruto was carrying a trembling Sakura while one of his shadow clones carried the exhausted Lily. None of them said anything after the Kyuubi had disappeared in a puff of smoke when Lily's chakra had given. Naruto didn't understand why the jutsu had gone wrong, but he had an idea that Sakura and Lily knew. He figured that that was the reason Sakura was so scared.

An hour away from the village Naruto stopped and set Sakura down. Sakura blinked in surprise and settled herself down and took Lily from the clone that disappeared in a puff of smoke. Lily weakly sat up and yawned.

"Why'd we stop?" she whined. "Aren't we close to the village?"

Naruto squatted in front of Sakura and gave her a hard stare. "So what happened back there?" he demanded. "You know that I'm a master at shadow clones, so why did I end up summoning the Kyuubi?"

Sakura traced Lily's seal with a trembling finger. "Naruto," she began slowly. "You took chakra from her main seal. I don't know how but you did."

"But," Naruto stammered. "You said that opening the main seal could consume you, and Lily's fine other than being the living dead."

Lily growled weakly while Sakura continued. "She was consumed Naruto," Sakura explained. "But because you were using the chakra to create a clone you directed the chakra so the clone was consumed. Now if Lily breaks the main seal she can summon a mini Kyuubi."

Naruto fell back on his butt and put his head in his hands. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "That was a very strong clone, I don't think he'll be beaten by one punch like mine are."

"Kaji didn't seem too bad right before my chakra gave out," Lily put in. "And if we befriend him it would be very useful to have him as back up whenever we need him."

"No way," Naruto growled. "I don't believe what he said; he wasn't forced to destroy Konoha and all those lives. If you summon him again Lily, you'll only hurt everyone in the village."

"But I can also send him back!" Lily objected hotly.

"I don't care!" Naruto yelled. "I forbid you to summon him!"

Lily recoiled in shock at the pure rage in Naruto's tone. She looked at Sakura who was gazing sympathetically at Naruto, before returning Naruto's glare.

"You don't control me," she said spitefully. "I'm not your pet."

"My chakra flows through that seal!"

Lily jumped out of Sakura's lap and bared her teeth in a snarl. "It's not your chakra that flows through me," she said dangerously. "Sakura's chakra does and so does the Kyuubi's, but not yours. He's not so close to you that your chakras are mixed."

Naruto glared, but didn't say anything as he created another shadow clone which scooped Lily up harshly and ran off towards the village. The real Naruto helped Sakura to her feet and crouched down so she could climb onto his back.

"You two were just starting to get along," Sakura said sadly. "I know how sensitive the Kyuubi topic is to you, but Lily doesn't understand yet. She doesn't know because the hated glares aren't directed at her yet. Once she gets her headband and can walk openly through the village, she'll begin to understand."

"I guess," Naruto mumbled. "That really scared me back there; the only time I've stood face to face with the Kyuubi was when there was a seal between us."

Sakura gave Naruto a small, reassuring squeeze. "It'll all be okay. Now let's hurry to Tsunade's office, I bet getting her headband will cheer Lily right up."

* * *

Lily was trembling in anticipation and anger. She was still angry with Naruto for his treatment of her, but her desire for her headband helped push it aside. Tsunade was listening to Sakura's report intently and her eyes flashed to Lily in fear when Sakura got to the part about the accidental summoning.

"So it wasn't so much a summoning as a very convincing clone," Tsunade clarified.

"Yes sensei," Sakura said with a nod. "And if the seal's nature preserves, whenever Lily breaks the main seal the Kyuubi will appear."

Tsunade leaned back in her chair and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "But the Kyuubi wasn't at full power?"

"I don't think so Grandma," Naruto put in. "He couldn't even beat Lily, their match pretty much ended in a draw. But he can defend himself and I doubt that he'd go 'poof' with one strike."

Tsunade glanced at Lily again and stood up. "When Lily has recovered I want to see this for myself. But, right now I have another thing I am told I must do."

"What is that sensei?" Sakura asked.

Tsunade grinned a little and opened a desk drawer. The fur on Lily's neck shot up when she recognized the headband that she had wanted ever since she had first been sealed. The leaf symbol on the plate was so polished that Lily could see her own excited reflection in it, and the band looked sturdy and breathable.

Laughing at Lily's excitement, Sakura picked Lily up and put her on Tsunade's desk. Lily found new energy and could barely sit still while Tsunade held the headband in front of Lily's nose.

"This headband is a responsibility," Tsunade warned her. "Now that you wear this, you have a duty to your village and you must be willing to fight to the death to protect it. Wear this, and you are this village's first official 'Ninja Fox'."

Lily sat taller and bowed her head in respect. "I understand, I am would be honored to wear that headband."

Tsunade smiled tiredly and put the headband on Lily's head. "This headband will mold when you change forms," she explained. "The plate will remain the same, but the cloth is extremely durable and can stretch enough to accommodate your strength form."

Lily's headband had holes to fit over her large ears and fit her perfectly. Turning around, she let Tsunade tie it securely in the back. Once the knot was secure, Lily bowed her head in respect. "Does this mean that I have to stop calling you 'Grandma' now?"

Sakura giggled while Tsunade gritted her teeth. "I am your hokage," she practically shouted. "I can't even tolerate the brat calling me that!"

"Come on Grandma," Naruto whined. "It's not that bad!"

While Tsunade continued to yell at Naruto, Lily felt her body swell with pride. The headband that she now proudly wore seemed to almost weigh her down with its responsibilities, but Lily knew that as long as she had something worth fighting for, she would continue to hold her head high as the first ninja fox in the history of Konoha and possibly the Land of Fire itself.

* * *

**A/N- I know it's short, but I wanted to sorta give you an idea of where my story will be going from now. Think of this chapter as the beginning of the next part! Review!!!! 5 Reviews= Next Chapter!!!**


	13. Author's Note

**I am terribly sorry that I haven't updated any of my stories for a long time. My laptop, which of course has all of my stories on it, got a virus **

**and I won't be able to post the chapters that I have finished until possibly September. The chapters were pretty much done when my computer**

** got infected. Sorry, but everyone's gonna have to be patient for a little while longer! Please review my story!**

**-Element07**


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